Take Me For Me
by mind on sleave
Summary: Katie is the newest member to what seems like everything: profesional Quidditch, Oliver's apartment, and advances from guys. Oliver, meanwhile, gets a tough lesson in dealing with people's imperfections. OWKB. R&R.
1. Playing With the Big Boys

hey everyone, i'm back and starting another oliver/katie fic. this one is post hogwarts, but will probably feature some of the characters from the hogwarts days. i hope you guys enjoy, tell me if it sucks majorly. nitpick it...go wild. just review. also, if anyone has any ideas about what should come next, tell me...i'm always open for ideas.

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing. end of story.

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**Take Me For Me  
Chapter 1: **Playing With The Big Boys

"Miss Bell, if you could please stop."

Katie quickly stopped her nervous habit of drumming her fingers on whatever solid object happened to be nearby. At this time, it was Oliver Wood's head. Oliver Wood was her Quidditch captain, incredibly good looking, and her best friend. They had been best friends since they were on the Gryffindor Quidditch team together at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Oliver looked up at her as he finished attaching his protective gear to his legs. He was sitting in front of his locker on the bench.

"You're going to do fine," he assured her. This was her first professional game. Oliver had gotten her the position of chaser for his team at the start of pre-season. A few months later and here she was, fully geared up, holding her broom and having a panic attack.

"Ollie, I think I'm going to throw up."

He stood up and put both hands on her shoulders, looking her in the eye. "You will do amazing. I know you will. You always do."

"That was at Hogwarts! This is different! This is big. This is professional. I'm being paid on the basis of whether I win or lose!"

"Wait, what? We're being _paid_ for this? God! No one gave me that memo!" Justin joked as he sauntered through the locker room. Oliver whacked him on the head as he passed and Katie gave him a dirty look that seemed to say 'I can and will hurt you'. He winked at her and motioned that she should call him. She gestured at him rudely, and he made a kissie face at her. Oliver shooed him out of the room and looked back at Katie.

"Do you remember that game where Harry broke his arm and we lost completely and terribly?"

"Yea…and?"

"Just don't break your arm."

"You're so helpful! You should seriously look into counseling. You know that?"

He gave her a smug little smile, "I'm trying to help you here, remember."

"I know, and I thank you for that, but do you have to do it with so much circumlocution?"

"Circumlo-what-tion?"

"-Locution. Circumlocution. It's evading things in speech or writing... What?" she asked, looking at his confused expression.

"Where did that word come from?"

"Well, circum is from Latin meaning round or circle, and locution is like –"

"No, I know that part of it, I'm not _that_ dumb. I'm saying, who are you and what have you done with my Katie Bell? You used to be so … not smart." He bit his lip at the last part, realizing it could be taken badly.

She laughed, thankfully, and patted his head. "You, my dear captain, are very interesting," she giggled.

Oliver blushed.

"Oy, Captain, Rookie, we're on soon! They're introducing the other team!" Amelia said, poking her head through the door. Amelia was a little blonde who measured in at 5'2", 100 pounds and could knock a seeker off their broom from half-way across the field with one whack of her beaters bat to a bludger. She used her small size as an advantage and had helped win the young team many games.

"Coming." Oliver called to her, he turned to Katie, "You ready?"

"No!" she squeaked.

"Well, at least you're upbeat about it."

"I think you misunderstood me, Oliver," she said, following him out to the gate onto the field without even realizing it. She was still trying to explain to Oliver how she really was not ready when the ref blew their whistle and the game started. As soon as she saw the quaffle though, all her panicky thoughts flew as far from her mind as Pluto from the sun. Instincts and Hogwarts training took over.

Two hours later, a sweaty and battered Katie looked over at Daniel and Justin, the other two chasers. The game had ended with Katie's team winning by 130 points. The stands were almost emptied now, but the team was too light-hearted to go back to the locker rooms. They continued to fly slow lazy circles around the field.

Daniel placed a big hand on her shoulder and smiled at her. "You're not that bad. I mean, that last shot could've gone a little faster and you could've not head-butted their seeker and almost falling off your broom is not the best way to get the quaffle, but yea, that was good." He ducked a punch that she aimed at him and laughed.

Justin flew over to her other side and put his arm around her so that she was sandwiched in between the two 6-foot-plus men. Daniel and Justin guided her towards Oliver who was talking animatedly with Amelia and Leo, the beaters.

"Can we keep her, Mommy?" Justin asked when they got within speaking distance.

Oliver glanced over and cracked up at the sight of 5'6" Katie between the two tall men. "Please, we'll feed her and walk her and not let her pee on the furniture, we promise!" Daniel said, continuing the joke.

Amelia gave Katie a thumbs-up and looked to Oliver for permission to go back. He nodded and both she and Leo flew towards the locker rooms. "Justin. Daniel. Locker rooms. Go." Oliver said. "I want to talk the newbie."

"Be nice!" Daniel growled and followed Justin's lazy flight downwards.

"So that wasn't too bad." Oliver said, giving her a smile that seemed to understand everything that she was feeling.

Katie sighed and laughed and wiped tears from her eyes all at once. "It's like my second-year all over again. I feel like I've never done it before, and yet I know I have."

Oliver nodded and held out his arm for a one-armed-hug. She flew into it and he could feel her shoulders loosen up.

"Wow," she said, looking around at the hundreds of empty seats.

"C'mon, Bell, let's go."


	2. Lordy, I Think I Might

hey, second chapter. dedicated to my editor: BlueEyedHope. you all should check her stuff out, its pretty good. The chapter title comes from a Waifs song. (The Waifs are an Australian band that I love). The next chapter is the second part of the line, since these two chapters go hand in hand. Also, many thanks to all of my reviewers! i love you all!

**Disclaimer:** plot yes, characters no.

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**Chapter 2: **Lordy, I Think I Might...

Katie returned home that night exhausted. Her watch read 11:30, and she had been up since 4 that morning. She unlocked her kitchen door and flicked on the light. She was surprised to see there was a person sitting at her table. Harsh kitchen light shone down on smooth mahogany skin, which was creased in a frown that Katie had seen too many times to count. The familiar kinky, wiry hair was pulled away from the person's face, in which sat a pair of extremely angry dark brown eyes underneath two perfectly manicured black eyebrows.

"Where have you been?" the person snapped.

"I had a game and then Amelia was showing me…Angelina, how did you get in my house?" Katie asked, pinching herself to make sure that she hadn't passed out on the underground ride home.

"That is of no importance here. I've been waiting here for hours!"

"I think it's of _some_ importance!" Katie squawked, finally setting down the bag that carried her uniform and pads and sitting down across from Angelina. Katie was shocked. Someone had gotten into her house without Katie letting them in. Granted, this person was a very close friend, but her house was magically guarded against anyone coming in or leaving if Katie was not home. This could be bad. No, this _was_ bad. _Very_ bad. Bad in the highest form of bad.

Angelina's look seemed to say 'O, darling, please. Get over it.' "I'm here because I was bored at home since Fred is working late at the shop tonight," she voiced outloud.

"You broke into my house because you were _bored_," Katie repeated, looking at her best friend with a mixture of contempt and incredulity.

"Yes, what are you deaf from all the loud cheering?" Angelina exclaimed, getting up and putting the kettle on.

Katie banged her head repeatedly on the table in response. Angelina was a great friend, and she always had your back in a situation, but her clipped words and direct demeanor were enough to drive anyone off the cliff at the end of an impossibly long day. Katie had just reached that cliff, and sadly, that annoying boy from that Muggle book was not doing a very good job of catching people falling off the cliff in the rye field. Not that she was in a rye field. In fact, she was very far from a rye field. This banging was beginning to hurt her head.

Angelina jumped up and sat on the counter, primly straightening her skirt and looking expectantly at the kettle. She sighed. She hated how Katie would insist on boiling water the Muggle way. It was just too slow. "Don't do that, you could get a bruise, and the swelling is so hard to cover up. Now, about how I got in here, you let me in."

"_What? No,_ I did _not!_ How could I have let you in, I wasn't even home! I've been out since six this morning!" Katie stopped banging her head, only to stare at Angelina incredulously.

"I don't mean you let me in today! You gave both Alicia and me keys when you first moved in. They let us past the enchantments as well as the Muggle locks. Did you forget?"

Katie nodded gloomily. "Look, Angelina, I'm exhausted. Can't we talk about this tomorrow? Go home, get some sleep, or if you don't, let me get some," Katie moaned.

Angelina jumped down and got two mugs out of the cupboard as the kettle began to steam. "Can't. I've been instructed to keep you up all night. What kind of tea do you want?" she asked perkily.

"How about kill-Angelina-with-a-spoon-and-go-to-sleep tea? Why are you instructed to keep me up all night? And by who? Because they're next on my kill-with-a-spoon list."

"A knife would be so much quicker, and Oliver," Angelina said sighing, and pulling down two blueberry tea bags. She placed them into the mug and poured the water in. She handed one to Katie and resumed her seat.

"_Why? _And yes, a knife would be quicker, but a spoon causes more pain before they die,_" _Katie pointed out, taking the lid off the sugar and spooning some in. She took a sip of the tea and winced at the heat of it.

"I suppose you have a point, no pun intended. And because they need you exhausted for tomorrow. Something about 'rookie orientation' or such. I don't know, all I know is that Oliver called me this afternoon and stated in his very gruff Scottish voice 'Angelina, keep Katie up all night!' and then he hung up. It was very peculiar," Angelina said, imitating Oliver's voice at the correct time.

Katie screwed her face up as if she was about to cry the way a two-year-old does and then thought better of it. "Well, if he wants me up all night, he can do it himself. Come on, we're going to go find Mr. I-love-to-torture-Katie."

"I don't think I'm supposed to let you out of the house," Angelina mused, sipping her tea.

"Angie, when have you ever followed rules? Let alone Oliver's?"

"When I get amusement out of it."

"You will get more amusement out of me torturing Oliver, than babysitting me here. We can even call up Fred if you want. I bet you'd get a ton of amusement out of that, no?" Katie's faced turned angelic and innocent, while Angelina's blushed a bright red.

"Fine, but if Oliver asks, you performed the body-binding curse on me and levitated me to wherever we're going. Flooing?" She set down her mug, picked up her purse and waited while Katie grabbed her wand from her duffel and stuffed it in a pocket of her coat.

"Whatever you say, Mrs. Weasley, and yes."

"Hey, we're not married…yet," Angelina winked and led the way to the fireplace. "Where to, Captain?"

"The Dancing Donkey Tavern. It's the team's hangout."

Katie stepped out of the fireplace, and Angelina followed shortly behind. They surveyed the small room that they landed in and spotted a cluster of young witches and wizards in the corner wearing bright yellow Quidditch robes.

When they arrived at the table, Katie noticed that they were lacking their captain. "Hey, guys. This is Angelina."

They looked up and froze. The sweetly evil face on Katie was enough to make anyone freeze. Angelina stood behind Katie and gave them a friendly wave. Amelia waved back and motioned for Angelina to sit, which she did. Katie remained standing with her hands resting on the back of Daniel's chair.

"Justin," Daniel said quietly in the direction of the other chaser across the table, without taking his eyes off Katie, "Puppy got out."

"I think Mommy's going to be mad," Justin whispered back.

Amelia and Angelina had begun to talk about the new line of heels that 'Witch Shoes?' had just come out with and so were completely oblivious to their surroundings.

"Where's Oliver?" Katie asked sweetly.

"We're not allowed to tell you that, Katie." Matt, the seeker, stated. He was sitting next to David, and completely unaware of the fact that Katie was prepared to use every way that she knew of to find out where Oliver was.

"Please?" she batted her eyelashes at him, figuring that if he was talking, he must know.

"No."

"Please, Matt," Katie begged.

"No, Katie." He grinned at her angelic face and pouting lip.

She sat on his lap and rested her head on his shoulder, "Please, Mattie-poo," she whispered.

Daniel looked at Justin and laughed, "Puppy has a dirty streak!" he exclaimed.

Katie sat up suddenly, "I am not being dirty! I am simply trying to get the information I need and then I will leave you all to drinking yourselves sick!"

Justin sighed, "Puppy, Puppy, Puppy. Seducing our sexy seeker won't get you anywhere. He doesn't know where Wood is. He just knows we're not allowed to tell you."

Katie got off Matt's lap, disgusted that they let her embarrass herself like that, and put her hands on her hips. "Okay, who do I have to seduce? I'm going to find him, even if it takes all night. And stop calling me Puppy! That's not my name!"

"Then you'd still be up all night, Pup, and Oliver will have slept," Daniel pointed out. Justin reached across the table and whacked the back of Daniel's head.

"Aha! So he's at home!" Katie smiled, and pulled on Angelina's arm, "C'mon, Ange, time to go find Woodsie."

Angelina looked at the team and asked, "Anyone want to come? This could be entertaining. When he did something like this to her in school, she left him floating above the lake with his wand in her pocket! She promised next time it would be worse!" she winked and followed Katie towards the fireplace.

That spurred the exhausted players to leap out of their seats and follow the friends through the fire to Oliver's living room.

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hope you liked...more coming as soon as i finish the next chapt. **review**, even if its to nitpick stuff.   



	3. Stay Up All Night

hey, guess what, it's chapter 3! yay! i had to take a break to go to camp, where i had so much fun...and where i got some inspiration for coming chapters...now i just need to work it into my story. anyway, i hope you like and once again: do not hesitate to nitpick. also: if you guys notice any grammar mistakes, this was edited by me when i was really sleepy from kayaking 2 days in a row.

dedicated to: Meshugenah for being amazing and nitpicking my work...loves

disclaimer: only the plotline

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Chapter 3: Stay Up All Night

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"Oliver Julius Wood!" Katie roared as she landed in a cloud of soot in his living room fireplace. The living room was typical Oliver; the comfortable, although stained couch had a Gryffindor blanket thrown haphazardly over the back. The floor was covered with Quidditch magazines, books, and plays. The walls were bare, and it looked as if Oliver had run out of parchment one day, since a pencil sketch of a Quidditch play the team worked on a few weeks ago was drawn on the wall beside the dusty TV. An archway led to a small kitchen where an open box of cereal sat beside a pitcher of milk. A dim hallway led to two rooms, both with their doors shut. Katie noticed none of this, as she was seeking Oliver's blood. 

Suddenly, the door on the right side of the hall opened and Oliver's ruffled head poked out of the door. He had a toothbrush in his mouth and when he saw Katie, with the rest of his team and Angelina behind them, he quickly retreated into what must have been his bathroom, and clicked the lock.

Katie stormed over to the door and began to bang on it. The rest of them arranged themselves on the two-person couch to watch the drama unfold. "Oliver!" Katie bellowed. "Oliver, open this door _immediately_! I told you the next time would be worse and you made a next time!"

"No! I'm not coming out!" Oliver's muffled voice came from the other side.

"Oliver, I swear, if you make me, I will break this door down! I've done it once, I can do it again!" she began to kick the door with her foot.

Angelina turned to the team and nodded. "She really did. Our fourth year, Oliver made her so mad that she broke down the door to his room. The seventh year boys were left door-less for a week. Very tragic and very funny." They laughed in appreciation.

"No, you can't, Katie. I've discovered that they make anti-break-down-the-door spells, and I've just installed one on this door!" Oliver yelled from the inside just as Katie's foot made a solid connection with the door and left a hole in it. She poked her head through the hole and smiled sweetly at him.

"You were saying?"

"You never listen do you, Bell? You always break first, ask questions later." Oliver told her, matter of factly, as he unlocked the door and shoved his way out into the room. Katie stood and glared at him, waiting for him to continue. Never one to keep a lady waiting – or in this case, a she-wolf – Oliver complied. "I'm serious. Fourth year Alicia told you Richard was cheating on you, so you broke his broom and then asked questions. You could be married to Richard now if you hadn't done that, you know."

"First off, he _was_ cheating on me, Oliver. And Secondly, I seem to remember having to stop a certain Quidditch captain from beating the shit out of him; and third, I never ask questions. I just break things. Like your _face_ if you don't tell me why I can't sleep tonight!" she stamped her foot in frustration.

"That's very mature, just throw a temper tantrum in my hallway!" Oliver shouted.

"If it let's me sleep, why not?" Katie sucked in a lung-full of air and held it. Oliver choked back a laugh as her face turned from red to slightly purple.

"What are you, _four_? It's tradition! The rookie always has to stay up the entire night after their first winning game! The captain normally keeps them up, but I've been feeling a tad under the weather lately and I thought that—"

"I've been feeling a tad _menstrual_ lately!" she whipped the retort out faster than a snitch could fly. The men in the room recoiled while the females murmured their sympathy.

Oliver was silent for a moment until he finally got his thoughts back. "That was below the belt and you know it," Oliver pointed his finger at her and glared. "You know that you females can frighten a whole town full of men when you are…_you know!_" He blushed, and the team leaned forward, waiting for the response.

"No, Oliver, I don't think I do!" Katie's smirk could have killed if Oliver hadn't been too stubborn to die.

"Mental!" he shouted angrily.

"It's men_stru_al, Ollie, not men_tal_," Amelia quipped from the couch.

Oliver turned to her and pointed at Katie. "In her case, it's _mental_!"

"Just because I charmed a bra to follow you around for a week!" Katie said, venomously.

"People started calling me _Olivia_!" Oliver yelled.

"You _stole_ my _underwear_! _All_ of it! I had to go _commando_ until I did the bra thing! It was in_ self-defense_!" Katie matched his volume.

Justin turned towards Angelina and smiled, "Life was never boring in Gryffindor tower with these two around, eh?"

"There was one week when they weren't speaking to each other which was quiet, but other than that, no, never boring. And if they _did_ get boring, we just called in Fred and George. Which reminds me, you would love them, Justin. They're – o dear, she has that look on her face. Oliver's in for it this time." Angelina winced and waited for the coming explosion.

Katie looked over at Angelina and twitched, "Enough from the peanut gallery, okay?" and turned back to Oliver, "Listen here, buddy. The next time you want to keep me up all night, you ask my permission. Do you understand?" her voice had gone icy cold and she had started to advance on him in a stalking manner. It looked very similar to the mouse suddenly becoming very ticked off and attacking the cat. Never a good thing for anybody involved. "I _will_ sleep tonight, and you _will_ let me. I realize it's tradition, and I realize that tradition is _very_ important, but I have been up since four am this morning – which by the way is before the sun rose – and I'm tired. I have only gotten _four hours_ of sleep in the past _forty-eight_, and it is currently, 12:15. Frankly, I'm of the feeling that I should have been asleep for three hours right now, but that's ok, we had to play a game, and I understand that. I love my teammates, and I love the game. But, Oliver Julius Wood, so help me Merlin, I will castrate you with a fork if you do not let me get to sleep tonight. I have cramps like no body's business and a slight bit of nausea coming on. Either you let me sleep, or I quit the team."

"Katherine, that's not fair to anyone here!" Oliver warned, back against the wall, staring down at the petit brunette in front of him as if she was rabid.

"Let me sleep," she growled.

"No, I can't. This tradition goes back to the first Quidditch match this team has ever played. That's two hundred years, Katie. Including the game that lasted for three days! Try keeping someone awake after that." He nodded knowingly and slipped to the side to escape the waves of cold, hard anger radiating from her. He put the team and Angelina between them and raised his hands. "I'm only doing this because I love you!"

"Bull shit! You knew about this when you got me the job, and then you took me out drinking last night. So not only am I bleeding, hormonal and exhausted, but I'm also hung-over! You're all to blame for this!" Angelina displayed a shocked and innocent face and Katie retorted with, "shut it, you know that if they had told you, you would have helped." Angelina's shrug seemed to say 'yea, you're probably right,' and Katie snorted in disgust.

"Katie Puppy, c'mon, look at this reasonably. You remember how important traditions were at Hogwarts! Hell, in Ravenclaw, before you could even sleep in your own bed, you had to stand on your head and sing the school song backwards." Matt said from his seat on the couch. She growled at the entire group assembled on the couch and then noticed that there were six people squashed onto a two-person couch.

"Oliver, don't you have any other seats in this house?" she asked.

His jaw dropped open and he rolled his eyes. "No! And that's not what we're arguing about!"

Katie seemed to have forgotten the previous argument though. "What are you going to do when you bring home a girl, Oliver? I mean, you are a leading Quidditch player! Last month, you were the centerfold in _Witch Weekly_'s 'Most Eligible Bachelors Under Thirty!' You could have any girl you want, and you don't even have a suitable place to take her!"

Justin piped up with his two cents from the center of the pile, saying, "Puppy, we live in a city _full_ of places to take beautiful women!"

Oliver ignored him, and exhaled sharply through his nostrils, "Katherine, do I look like the type of person that dates groupies?"

"Have you ever kissed a girl, Oliver?"

"Matt, yes I have kissed a girl!" Oliver exploded. His knuckles turned white with clenching and his mouth moved backwards from ten.

"Your mom doesn't count," Angelina smirked.

He looked as if he was going to explode, and the team cowered, having become very familiar with Oliver's temper. Angelina, who had gotten to know Oliver's temper even better over the years knew that her comment was not the one that would send him to spontaneous combustion, but instead into a calmer anger.

True to his personality, Oliver got a wicked glint in his eye as he remembered a certain night in his sixth year and turned towards Katie. "Tell them Katie. I have too kissed a girl." Katie's face paled and she shook her head violently. The glint in Oliver's eyes got brighter and he smiled at Katie seductively. "You remember, Puppy, I know you do."

"It was Halloween and I was drunk!" she spat suddenly, and then realized what she had said and almost died of embarrassment. She sat heavily on a chair that appeared suddenly underneath her.

The team and Angelina let out catcalls and whoops. Justin faked shock and placed his hand on his heart. "Wait, let me get this straight, our dear Captain Hard-Ass took advantage of sweet, innocent Puppy while she was drunk?"

Oliver rolled his eyes at the team's nickname for him. "First of all, I prefer Genghis Wood."

"You would," Leo drawled.

Oliver ignored him and continued, "and secondly, she took advantage of _me_, seeing as I seem to remember that it was Pup here who crawled into _my_ bed."

"It's not like you were _complaining_!" Katie retorted.

"How do you know, you didn't give me time to complain!" Oliver's voice had shot up half an octave.

Katie smirked, happy that she was forcing herself to not being embarrassed, whereas Oliver's face was practically maroon. "You were much stronger than me, Ollie, you could have pushed me off." Her voice dripped innocent seductress.

Oliver looked to his team for help; Amelia chuckled and stood up with difficulty. "I would love to hear the rest of this story about Katie's drunken exploits while in Hogwarts, but I'm exhausted. Plus, I feel like this is going to escalate into more yelling, and I my ears hurt enough already." She paused to yawn hugely, and then murmured a goodnight and stumbled to the fireplace. She turned around and crooked a finger seductively at Justin before disappearing into the floo network.

Justin leaped off the couch and followed Amelia through the flames with a whoop of "Yeehaw, I'm getting some tonight!"

David laughed and glanced at the clock. "Shit!" he exclaimed. "I told Natalie that I would be home an hour ago! Sorry to ditch the party as well, but you know the wife…" he disapperated out of the living room with a shrug.

"Okay, it's 1:20. Angie, please take Katie home because I'm afraid she might try to claw my eyes out if I let my guard down." He ignored Katie's rude gesture, and sent a silent thank you to Amelia for sidetracking everyone from the memory of that night.

Angelina stood and motioned to Katie. "C'mon, babes, let's go. We'll pick Alicia up on our way home and you can tell us all about your drunken adventures that you failed to mention while we were in school."

"That was the only one!" Katie protested.

"Yea, but I want details. I want to know how Genghis Wood kisses." She flashed Oliver a pale grin that contrasted wonderfully with her dark skin. Oliver rolled his eyes and waved good-bye to his best friends from school. They left with Katie still protesting that she wanted to sleep. Leo and Matt stood and grinned at Oliver.

"The entertainment left, we're out…unless you have firewhiskey in that sad excuse for a kitchen over there." Leo hinted with a cheeky grin.

Oliver laughed and went to get the common wizard drink.

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so yea...that was chappy 3...hope you liked. nitpick, edit, etc. also: if anyone is able to spare some of their precious summer time for me to bounce some idea's off of, tell me. loves to y'all...now review.  



	4. Confide, cause I'll be on your side

hey, so...here's chappy 4...sorry if there are any left over formatting mistakes. i tried to fix them all, but sometimes when you're rushed, you miss a few. so yea...enjoy and thanks for reading! my life is going to start picking up really quickly here, but i've got a little bit of a buffer (about a chapter and a half) so i should keep updating semi-regularly for a little while. it also helps that one of my friends who reads this story goes to my school, so she'll hopefully keep me on task. hint hint

**dedicated to chryssi** -- amazing person, wonderful friend and one of the few people in this world, besides me, who can stomach all of the odd food combos listed in this story.

**Chapter 4: **Confide...cause I'll be on your side

The cloud of soot billowed before him, and as he stepped out of the fireplace, dusting off his robes, he noticed something that was quite unnerving. There, sitting in the corner was Katie and she was laughing. That was not the unnerving thing. The unnerving thing was that sitting across from her was a man. Oliver could tell, even from this distance, that the man was not part of the team, nor was it one of the twins.  
And, to top it all off, she was laughing in a way that made Oliver's heart lurch. The last time she had laughed that laugh with him, she had been drunk and had just crawled into his bed. This could only mean one thing: Katherine Bell, his Katherine Bell, was on a date.

"Well, so what if she is?" he muttered to himself and sat down at a table on the opposite side of the room.

"There hasn't been anything in between you two since that night. And she was drunk that night, so it doesn't count." Oliver looked over his shoulder at them and Katie smiled at the man again.

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Katie couldn't believe her luck. Cameron Thompson had sent an owl to her house last night asking if she could meet for lunch the next day. The Cameron Thompson. Heir to the Firebolt fortune, and number five on the 'Most Eligible Bachelors Under Thirty' list. And here she was, sitting across from this gorgeous man who couldn't keep his eyes off her. Well, she thought, that could be because all that's behind me is a plain, old wall, and he's too nice to sit here staring over his shoulder. She shook that last thought away.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" she asked, shaken out of her reverie by his waiting look.

"I said, how did you start Quidditch, and what made you play chaser?" he asked again, smiling a little.

"What is this, an interview?" she joked, trying to supress a giggle.

Cameron looked playfully shocked, and said, "Am I that easy to read?"

"You do hide it well, but the words scrolling across your forehead make it slightly obvious," Katie dead-panned.

Cameron laughed heartily at that. "No, this is not an interview. I just want to know how a pretty girl like you got into Quidditch, and why she sticks with it. You could be a model if you wanted to, you know," he said, grinning suggestively at her.

Oh, he did not just say that. I think I'm going to gag. Katie thought, and smiled awkwardly. Cameron picked up on the change in atmosphere, "What? Did I say something wrong?" he asked.

She shook her head quickly and gave him an award-winning grin, "Nope, everything is okay. Peachy in fact. Yep. Peachy-keen!"

"Don't lie to me and spare my feelings. I'm a big boy, I can take it." Cameron said demandingly.

"Well, it's just that…the model thing, that was kind of cheesy. Like, I wanted to gag really bad." Katie bit her lip.

Cameron's face showed a peeved expression. "I'm sorry.

I just thought that's what you would want to hear. You play such a male dominated sport—"

"Not true. It's pretty much split fifty-fifty," Katie interjected.

"That I thought maybe you would appreciate being treated like an actual female. I see I was wrong. So tell me, are you one of those women that likes to wear the pants in the relationship or is that just how you're coming off right now?" He steam-rolled right over her and then smirked.

Katie's jaw dropped. "Excuse me?" was all she could say.

"Did you not hear me?"

"Oh, no, I heard you, I just don't think I comprehended what you just said. Are you bi-polar by any chance? Because that mood-swing that you just had was worse than the ones that my pregnant sister gets. So, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll leave you with the check and go see how she's doing. Have fun, I ordered the most expensive thing on the menu!" Katie slammed her napkin on the table and stalked out of the pub.

&&&&

"I cannot believe that just happened to me!" Katie screeched, taking another spoonful of ice cream out of the tub. The troops had been called in, and they had provided the necessary provisions of a good long rant. Angelina lay sprawled on the couch, and was currently devouring a plate full of chocolate covered strawberries. Every once in awhile, Alicia, who was curled into a ball on Katie's coffee table, would have a berry fly over to her. Katie's older sister, the aforementioned pregnant one, was relaxing in an overstuffed arm-chair, and holding the tub of ice cream.

"I mean, I've been on bad dates, but never ones quite like that!" Katie continued, as Amelia came back from the kitchen carrying a bowl of popcorn and a bag of chocolate chips. She set the bowl on the table and poured the chocolate in.

"Oh, that is so gross!" Angelina said, nibbling the chocolate off another berry.

"Try it before you insult it!" Amelia sing-songed, taking a handful of the mixture and settling down on the rug.

"Guys, horrible bi-polar date to analyze here!" Katie stopped in mid pace and stared at the four women in her living room.

"Oh, shut up! Look, you're date was horrible, but you stuffed him with the check and now you're getting to eat ice cream, chocolate and popcorn with your four best friends." Katie's sister Kelsey pointed her spoon at her younger sibling and continued. "Now, we've heard about your date; we've talked about how he was very odd; we've discussed how cute his eyes were; we've even discussed what food you got, but you haven't told us about that night you were drunk at Hogwarts. I want to hear about that."

Katie rounded on Alicia and Angelina, both of whom had their mouths full. "How many other people did you tell?" her voice was squeaky with a mixture of infuriation and shock.

"We thought she should know!" Alicia tried to say, but failed because of the large combination of popcorn, chocolate and strawberry in her mouth.

Angelina gagged, swallowed her mouth-full and then looked at her surrogate sister. "Do you have strawberry, chocolate and popcorn in your mouth?"

Alicia nodded. "My respect for you just plummeted," Angelina said with disdain.

Alicia shrugged and Amelia attempted the same combo. "Oh, not you too!" Katie wailed, sinking to the floor.

Amelia mused for a minute than smiled. "Wow, that is surprisingly good. It's right up there with onion rings and milkshakes!"

"And Sour Patch Kids on bread!" Kelsey added, trying the combination as well.

Katie looked to Angelina for support, but was sad to see her ex-teammate tentatively trying the trio of comfort foods. "I'm going to regret this, but pass me a strawberry and some popcorn," she muttered after a bit. The women laughed as Angelina chucked one of the bright red berries at Katie.

&&&&

The next day, Katie woke to an owl pecking furiously at her window. She rubbed at her eyes and blearily surveyed the room from her spot on the floor. Kelsey in all her curvy, mom-to-be-glory was stretched out in the over-stuffed recliner under a blanket, and clearly dreaming of something happy, since her lips held a slight smile. The 'A Team' as they had taken to calling themselves, was slouched together on the couch, sharing one blanket. Angelina was slumped against the arm of the couch, with Amelia hugging her as a child would a teddy bear, and Alicia's head was resting on the small, blonde, beater's shoulder. The owl's pecking had begun to be accompanied by small hoots of irritation and Katie scrambled up to the window and let the bird in.

The owl hooted in annoyance and held out its leg. Katie took the note from the leg and gave it a treat from a bowl on the coffee table. "Happy?" she asked huffily, and the bird hooted in response than took off.

Katie untied the note and scanned it, then muttered a swear word. She glanced at her four best friends and decided not to wake them, but she knew she needed to talk to someone. Thinking for a bit, she realized who that someone was. She scrawled a note and the apparated with a small pop, which caused none of the sleeping females to awake.

&&&&

Oliver's apartment was still as messy as it had been when Katie had left a few days before. This did not surprise her. She ventured across the small living room and banged on the door across from what she knew to be Oliver's bathroom. A few moments later, he opened the door and glared balefully at her. She noticed he was only wearing boxers and his hair was mussed from sleep. She had a split second to recognize that she liked this look before she squashed the thought.

"Why are you in my house?" he growled.

"I need a place to stay," she said hurriedly. At his worried expression, she shook her head. "No, I mean, I'm okay, but my landlord has decided to sell and has given me four days to move out and I can't go live at Angie's because she's got Fred there and ew. Licia's is completely out of the question because it's Alicia and you know that we'd kill each other in the span of two days because she's anal and I'm not and plus with my schedule, I'd push her over the edge. And –"

"Katie," Oliver interrupted, walking back into his room and throwing a shirt on – much to Katie's subconscious dismay, "you are anal, but continue, I can tell this is going to be entertaining." He pushed past her and settled on the couch in the living room.

She followed and continued on with her explanation.

"I am not! And Amelia is living with Justin and they're completely cramped." She paced in front of him and gestured a lot with her hands, which tipped Oliver off to the fact that she was desperate, even if she didn't say it. "They're apartment is smaller than yours is and they have twice as many people living there. George is out too since it'd be awkward because he's dating my best friend. Kelsey has the new baby coming and I need all the sleep I can get when I'm not practicing. Anyone else on the team I don't know well enough and the only other person I can think of right now would be my mother and—"

"I don't want you to kill yourself," Oliver interrupted her for a second time that morning. He knew then and there that he would let her stay, but he couldn't afford to just let her off this easy. "You haven't thought this through though," he continued.

"Where are you going to sleep?"

"On my couch."

"What?"

"We'd replace yours with mine. There's no way I'm sleeping on that thing. It's gross. What, did you steal it from the common room before you left?" she paused as he tried to look innocent. "Oh, Merlin, you did! Oliver, obsessed is an understatement when it comes to you."

His expression turned pensive and he ran a hand through his hair. "Katie, look, if I had room, I'd definitely let you stay, but there's just no room. And before you tell me that Justin and Amelia manage, that's different. They're in love. We're not."

Katie sat on the small table in front of the couch and grabbed his hands. "Please, Ollie," she begged.

"You're crazy," was his only response as he got up and dragged himself through the doorway into the kitchen.

She could hear him putting the kettle on and she sighed. She followed him in and sat on the floor again. "There are chairs, you know," he remarked as he took tea-leaves out of a tin and spooned them into a filter.

"I like the floor. My other choice would be your counter, but that's dirty," she replied.

"So's my floor." He got another mug and pinch of leaves out for her and turned to face her. Crossing his ankles and arms, he leaned against the counter. She inspected the floor and then leapt off it as she realized that the brown colors were not just artistic swirls but dirt and other things she's rather not know about. He laughed as she glared at him and took a seat on a chair this time.

"Look, Oliver, I know we haven't been on the bestest of best terms since well, forever. I mean, we've always been friends but with differences and those differences are what bonded us and I just really need a place to crash long enough until I can find another house. I'd cook!" Her captain stared at her with a mild amount of disgust on his face. "Jeez, if I knew I was that repulsive, I wouldn't've come!" she muttered and got up to go.

"It's not that. You're fine. It's your cooking I have an issue with!"

She turned to face him, and she noticed that when he leaned against the counter like that, he was quite sexy. Shut up! She thought to herself and stuck her tongue out at him. "Fine, I won't cook, but I'll clean! C'mon, I'm good at cleaning! You know I am!"

She gave him an award-winning smile and he shook his head defeatedly.

"I'm going to regret this, aren't I?" he asked.

"Maybe a little," she replied and rushed over to him.

"Thanks, Ollie, I owe you big time!" She gave him a quick hug and a friendly kiss on the cheek and than apparated home again. Oliver placed a hand lightly on his cheek where she had kissed him and then realized he had forgotten to shave in the past two days. He exhaled the breath he didn't realize he had been holding and walked to the bathroom, leaving the kettle to heat.

&&&&&

hey, hope the formatting wasnt too horrible. it was written on a mac, then my friend edited it on her pc, then we emailed it back to my mac, and then i had to email it to my dad's pc to post it on here...basically, its been through a lot this little chapter. anyway, be nitpicky and anal as always, and review...makes me update sooner!


	5. You Can Keep Me Company

**Hey peeps. whats up? uhm...since last upload, i flew cross country, went to marching band camp and "this one time at band camp..." i broke my ankle! yay! now i have a giant blue cast on my ankle. and my foot itches like a mother right now. crap. anyway, i start school tomorrow, so idn when the next upload is going to be. i will try to have it be soon, but ... anyway, onwards and upwards. The title of this chapter is from "i'm only happy when it rains" by garbage. btw, if in anywhere it says chapter 6...its cuz i cant count. **

**Disclaimer: **only the cast is mine  
**Dedicated to: **the people who put on alert. i love them. they're pretty chill.

**Chapter 5:** You can keep me company

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

Four days later, Katie arrived at Oliver's apartment promptly at ten. Oliver glared at her for waking him up – again – as Fred and George hauled in the couch from Katie's apartment. They had chosen to move her couch in the Muggle way, considering both Oliver and Katie lived in Muggle neighborhoods. When the twins tried to take Oliver's couch out the door, he flung himself on it and they were forced to set it down again.

"Oliver, get off the couch." Katie's voice was filled with boredom as she looked over the list she had created.

"Ollie, mate, it's not going far. Just down to the dumpster three flights below!" Fred said.

"Yes, but then it leaves**…**forever!" Oliver protested.

"So, you see, this is just the transition period. You have time to get used to it before it leaves," George patted Oliver's head and Oliver glared.

"You're full of shit," he remarked in a surly tone.

"Ollie, what's wrong with Katie's couch?" George asked, attempting to get his ex-captain off the beloved couch. Oliver bit him and the red head recoiled with a swear. Oliver hissed and George returned the noise. "Down, kitties," Fred joked, sitting on the arm of the stolen Gryffindor couch.

"It doesn't go with the décor!" Oliver wailed, hugging a beaten cushion.

"What décor? Oliver, you walls are a yellow color that used to be white, your carpet is crusty and your shelves are bare of everything but dust. What style are you going for? Messy bachelor?" Katie perched on her own couch and raised an eyebrow.

"Yes!" Oliver grinned, "So you see, your girly couch would just stick out like a sore thumb!"

George laughed and said, "Ollie, if you're going for something masculine, you might want to rethink the wallpaper in your kitchen."

"That was here when I bought this place!"

The twins rolled their eyes as if he was lying and they knew it, and he threw a pillow at them.

"Whatever," Katie said, and then walked towards the fireplace. "I have to go down to Diagon Alley. I'll be back in around an hour. George and Fred, can you please get that thing formally known as a couch out of the living room?"

"You all used to love this couch at school!" Oliver yelled, although he was ignored by all.

"We'll do our best. If he bites any more though, we're going to have to tranquilize him," Fred assured her and ushered her into the floo network. Oliver bared his teeth. Turning to the captain, the slightly taller of the two twins crossed his arms. "Okay, Oliver, what's the real reason you don't want to get rid of this couch? Just last week you were talking about buying another one, and now you're biting George. You haven't done that in years!"

"Not since I tried to take his firewhiskey after the House Cup game," George remembered.

"Yes, well, he was drunk then. That's more of a reason for biting than a couch that you've wanted to get rid of for awhile. What gives?" Fred began to tidy up.

Despite the fact that he was one half of the notorious Weasley Twins, Fred was a closet neat freak. He was also madly in love with Angelina, and much to his twin's dismay, her messy tendencies had not worn off on him.

"There's going to be a girl in my house!" whined Oliver, pouting.

George barked out a laugh. "Oliver, it's not that bad."

"Yes it is! The last girl I lived with was my mom!"

"I don't think Katie's going to be filling that position anytime soon. For you or anyone else."

"Especially with the dates that she's had recently!"

George said, grinning.

Oliver's pout disappeared. "What do you mean?" he questioned worriedly.

"According to Angie," Fred's tone took on one similar to that of a teenage girl with a especially juicy bit of gossip. "She went out with Cameron Thompson and he was not only disgustingly flattering, but he 'had such a mood swing that even Kelsey wondered what was stuck up his bum.'" Fred's impersonation of Angelina was dead on and the boys laughed.

"And then Licia said she went out with a guy who was so boring she couldn't even remember his name." George said this while entering the kitchen and scrounging in the fridge for something other than condiments.

Oliver sighed and hung his head in his hands. "It's just…Katie and I have a history, as you guys know and … well, I'm worried. Like, we fight a ton, and so what happens when we want to kill each other? Maybe she should live with you George, you do have that extra room."

"Hell no, I love Kates, but neither of us wants to live together, and you're so full of it," George said returning with what could only be called a 'ketchup and mustard sandwich.'

"What?"

"You're worried that her being here is going to make your life enjoyable and that her table's going to get moved to the front again!" George took a bite of the condiments-on-bread sandwich.

This time, both Fred and Oliver questioned him.

"You've been hanging out with Alicia too long!" Fred added.

"No, it actually makes a ton of sense! Okay, so like, your heart is like this restaurant right?" George said excitedly and launched himself onto Katie's couch.

"And so, this place doesn't take reservations, but if you're really important and have visited there before, they save your table. Well, your heart's like that.

Like, some people are just those people that stop in for lunch and then you never see again, and others are those people that have a table always saved for them, whether or not they come back. Katie's like that with you. She has a table in your heart and you're not willing to get rid of it yet and neither are you willing to bring it to the front of the room for easy access, so instead you're hiding it in a corner until someone forcefully drags it out from the shadows. Katie doesn't know it's there, so she's not the one who's gonna do the dragging, and beside you, she's the only one who can." Oliver and Fred stared at him for a minute, but he failed to notice their shocked expressions. "By the way, Ollie, you're out of mustard."

That broke their silence and Oliver chuckled unwillingly. "Thanks, I'll get right on that. Now, about this table thing, where did you hear that?"

"From Alicia."

"See! You have been spending too much time with her!" Fred shouted triumphantly.

"There can never be too much time with her," George grinned cheekily.

"Ew, I don't want to hear about your sex life," Oliver gagged.

"It's better than yours!"

"How do you know?"

"Oliver, you're worried about Katie moving in here.

Not because you have a parade of girls through your bed, but because you're worried about getting too close to her and falling for her again. We realize she hurt you in school, but you can't just tell her that you'll let her move into your tiny apartment and then kick her out again. You got yourself into this, you're going to have to follow through."

"George, when did you become so mature?"

"When I realized that even though I can make my living off of pranks, I can't live my life off them. They were fun at Hogwarts, and so we continue to invent them for posterity, but they're not a way of life anymore. In case you haven't noticed, Fred and I have both grown up."

"Fred's always been slightly more grown up than you,"

Oliver remarked dryly.

"I resent that."

"Good, it was meant as an insult."

"Well than, in that case, I'm going to have to retaliate, I do hope you're forgive me," and with that, George unstuck his pieces of bread and threw one at Oliver. It landed on his face and then slowly slid down onto the couch. Fred's guffaws were stopped suddenly as the other piece of bread hit him in the shoulder.

"Oh, that's war!" he shouted and chucked the bread back at George. George ducked it and ran into the kitchen and furiously began to make more projectiles.

Oliver and Fred leapt off the couch and ran after him.

Fred attempted to grab the butter knife away from his brother while Oliver jammed the ketchup-y bred down George's t-shirt. George screamed like a little girl and squirmed away from the sticky slice that was attached to his back. Oliver laughed and then stopped when a glob of mayonnaise flew off the end of the butter knife and hit him in the eye. After that, the events are a little blurry in all three of the twenty-somethings' minds, but one thing is very clear:

When Katie returned with Alicia and Angelina an hour later, there was ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise all of the house.

Just as the girls entered the front door, loaded down with bags of groceries, an especially odd mixture of condiments flew and landed on Angelina's dark braids.

The boys stopped in horror as Angelina exhaled slowly and reached a hand up to wipe the goo off her head.

Katie and Alicia snickered at the scolding the boys were going to receive and went to put things away in the kitchen.

"Fred, what is this?" Angelina asked slowly.

Fred peered closer at the pinkish-orangish glob on Angelina's finger and then said, "It seems to be ketchup, mustard and mayo, Angie. Would you care for a sandwich?"

"No, Fred, I would not like a sandwich, I would like to know why there are condiments in my hair."

Angelina's voice was still slow and cold.

"Well, it's really simple actually," George began to explain but Angelina held up a hand.

"Never mind. Actually, I don't want to know. How is it that we leave you three here for an hour and the house is covered in—" she was cut off as a large ball of cake batter splattered on the front of her wizarding robes. She stared in horror and then looked up at Katie and Alicia standing in the doorway. Alicia quickly tried to hide the batter-covered spoon behind her back, but not before Angelina grabbed on of the original slices of mustard-covered bread and hurled it at her best friend. Alicia dodged it, but Katie was not so lucky. The bread landed on her and Katie screeched. "That's not fair!" she protested. "I didn't do anything!"

"You picked out the batter!" Angelina yelled, dodging behind Fred as another glob of batter came flying from Alicia.

"Well, you do have a point there," Katie remarked as she threw the bread at Oliver who was laughing silently at her. He stopped as the bread hit him, and he grinned impishly at her.

"No, Ollie, no!" She squealed when he leapt over the furniture and scooped her over his shoulder. "Oliver, put me down!" she demanded as he walked nonchalantly into the kitchen. He dug through the bags on the counter until he found a can of whipped cream.

"Dearest Katherine, I do hope you understand that I have to do this now. You've entered our war and—" he paused as a scream and a splat echoed from the living room, "and therefore, you are safe no more." With that last remark, he set Katie down and squirted the whipped cream all over her face. In retaliation, she wiped her face on his shirt and ran away laughing. She ran into the fray of the living room and soon all of the six ex-teammates were sprawled in the small living room and grinning.

Angelina buried her face in Fred's chest and he nuzzled her hair and than glanced at George and Alicia. Alicia was picking batter out of her hair, (the bowl had been overturned on her head at some point) and was wiping it on George who didn't seem to notice. George was leaning over and finger painting with condiments on Oliver's cheek as Oliver relaxed with his eyes closed. Katie was lying spread-eagled on the floor and was laughing happily.

Fred sighed. It's been a long time since we've done something like this, he though, too long. I miss this, he suddenly realized and gave Angie a small kiss on her dirty hair. She stuck her tongue out at him and used her sleeve to remove some whipped cream on his nose. "I love you," she whispered.

"Forever," he whispered back.

&&&&&&&

Later, after the twins and their respective girlfriends had left, Katie and Oliver got to the business of cleaning up after the Food War. She grinned to herselve as she watched him performing cleaning spells on the walls. Katie herself was soaping and drying the couches and rug. Oliver's close cropped hair was stiff from all the food product in it and his jaw was clenched with thought. His t-shirt and jeans from earlier had been thrown in the bathtub to soak, along with Katie's clothes, and now both were dressed in gray sweatshirts and shorts. Katie noticed for the second time that week how sculpted his legs were and just as her mind ignored her wishes and began to venture into fantasyland, Oliver's voice snapped her back.

"Thanks," he murmured.

She paused. "Why?"

"Because I needed something to show me that this wasn't going to be scary and that I wasn't going to regret it. When you flung that piece of bread at me, I knew it was going to be okay." Katie snorted with laughter at the cheesy way he said it, but she still knew he was telling the truth. "I mean, you weren't pissed that we had completely destroyed the house, and you weren't even worried that you were going to get dirty. It showed me that you're still yourself, even if you are dating strange men all of a sudden." He laughed slightly and with a final spell to clean the last wall, he turned to help her with the couch.

"I am not dating strange men!" Katie protested.

"Cameron Thompson?"

Katie blushed with frustration, "Okay, so maybe he's a little strange."

Oliver grinned smugly and Katie's wand spat water at him. "I'm not doing any more cleaning after this, Katherine," he warned. She made a face at him, but began on the rug.

The two teammates continued to clean until the dingy apartment sparked as much as it could. They then moved the couches so that they faced each other with the table in the center. "My girly couch needs a manly one in her life," Katie explained. As the night got older, they settled in for a night of relaxation and finally sleep. Oliver in his room, and Katie stretched comfortably on her couch.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

**read and review, as always. nitpick. loves and fizzies. **

**-h**


	6. Electricity in the Air

**Hello peoples...sorry this took forever to update and i'm sorry it's crap. I'm home sick from school so i actually had time between theater, marching band and breaking bones. woot. anyhoo...enjoy (please please please) and review. loves**

**ps: title of chapter is from a song called "Girl From Mars" that i've been listening to a ton in the past 2 days...so its stuck in my head. **

**Chapter 6: Electricity in the Air**

Practice was scheduled from eleven to three the next day, but Oliver and Katie arrived shortly before noon due to some complications with the bathroom. They glided into the stadium too see the rest of the team playing catch lazily with the quaffle.

"Get up there, Bell," Oliver commanded gruffly as he let loose the bludgers without warning and launched himself into the air. Katie had to dodge on her ascent to the circle of players to avoid the hard black ball.

She gave Oliver a withering glance and grabbed Leo's bat hanging from his belt. He opened his mouth to protest but shut it when she said tersely, "No." The next time a bludger came whooshing near her, she gave it a hearty whack at Oliver's head, even though by this time he was giving out instructions for the team.

"Bell!" he hollered at her. She stared at him innocently and said, "Yes, Ollie?" He gave her a rude gesture and continued on with the plan for the rest of practice. "It's going to be short today," he was saying. "Ten high-speed air laps – I want them completed in under a minute thirty seconds—" the team groaned and Oliver ignored them. "Then when that's

done, chasers: eight shots in under five minutes past me, while working on your passing. I want at least three passes before every shot."

"Oliver!" Katie reprimanded. "Three passes before each shot and eight shots in under five? For each of us? That's physically impossible! We'll be here all day!"

"Well, then, maybe you will. Leo and Amelia, you're working on aiming today, so aim for the right foot." Leo rolled his eyes at Amelia who puffed out her cheeks and crossed her eyes. "Stop that. Matt, just work on your feints."

"What? That's easy! Feints are his specialty and you know that!" Daniel exclaimed. Matt nodded in agreement.

Oliver held up a hand, "After the chasers have finished their shots, we're going to do some sprints. Okay? Okay." He glanced up but seemed not to see their mutinous glares. "Great, let's get started then."

Katie caught the quaffle that Daniel passed to her and flew towards the posts. Justin anticipated this and fell back fifty yards behind and to her right, landing him right next to the right goal hoop. Daniel hovered below her and as she aimed to throw at Justin, the

ball fell purposefully from her grip into Daniel's waiting hands and he lobbed it easily past Oliver.

"Eight!" he yelled and wiped a hand across his forehead. He had been the last one to complete his eight and as Katie and Justin sagged in relief that it was finally over, Oliver shouted at them to repeat it. Justin and Daniel gripped their brooms in silent anger, but Katie went ballistic.

"Oliver!" she screamed at him, causing everyone on the field to pause in their practice. In the silence, they heard a sickening crack as a bludger hit Matt's foot. He paled considerably and wavered on his broom. "You can't keep doing this!" Katie continued to scream. "Just because you're pissed at me doesn't mean you are allowed to take it out on the rest of the team! Matt's foot is probably broken, judging by that last crack! Leo's having to lift Amelia's arm for her! Justin and Daniel have performed better than I could possibly imagine today and you don't even tell them 'wow guys, that was great teamwork!' You can be an asshole to me, but stop taking it out on the rest of the team! They're not the ones who 'hogged the bathroom' this morning, okay? It's two hours after we were supposed to stop, and we're stopping now!"

"You don't have the authority to call that!" Oliver yelled.

"Fuck you!" she responded and flew towards Matt who was swaying dangerously on his broom. She grabbed him just as he would have fallen and flew him down to the ground where he sprawled on the ground almost blind with pain. "It's amazing he's held out this long," she remarked to Amelia who was the first to land next to them.

"I didn't mean to hit him! I normally hit what I am for, and I was aiming for two inches off his foot, but I guess a wind came up or Matt moved unexpectedly and I'm really, really sorry, Mattie…" her voice trailed off and she watched Leo wrestle one of the beastly little balls into the crate, locking it into place. Katie nodded and placed a numbing spell on Matt's foot, and then conjured a splint. Amelia knew that Katie planned on fixing the bone here on the field, and with an apology to Matt, sent a spell to knock him unconscious for a bit. She held the foot in place as Katie wrapped the splint around it, and then looked away as Katie said the spell and the skin started to move from the bones sliding underneath it.

By this time, the rest of the team except Oliver had landed, and Justin knelt down next to Amelia. She rested against him and he sighed into her hair. "Can we go home now?" Katie heard her murmur, and he nodded. Without even moving from their position, they

apparated to their house, preferring to get away from Ghengis Wood as soon as possible. Katie moved to Matt's head and placed it in her lap as Daniel and Leo settled in beside her.

"He's gonna be okay, right?" Leo asked.

Katie nodded and then looked skywards to Oliver's silhouette against the setting sun. He was sitting on one of the hoops with his feet resting on his hovering broom and his back slouched in defeat.

"Hey, Pup, thank you," Daniel said.

Katie turned to him and gave a watery smile. "I'm so sorry he did that, you guys," she said as she choked on a sob. Leo moved to cradle her against himself, as the tears began to fall. Daniel rubbed her back, and the four teammates sat like that for a few minutes.

Katie lost in guilt that Oliver had taken his anger at her out on the team, Leo staring at his best friend on the team who lay unconscious on the ground and Daniel, who despite his anger, felt sorry for his captain up on the posts. He knew that Oliver's compassion, although buried deep down, would be surfacing right about now, and that Oliver was going to feel incredibly horrible in a few minutes.

Just then, four people marched across the field from the locker rooms. Two tall red-heads, a person Daniel recognized as Angelina from a few nights ago, and another blonde who he had never seen before.

"Aim for the right foot?" one of the men, who Daniel realized now were twins, asked.

Katie glanced up and through her watery vision, she saw four of her best friends standing in front of her. "What are you guys doing here?" she asked. She would've gotten up to hug them, but Matt's head still rested in her lap, and Leo's shoulder felt so good to

lean into right now, that she didn't move.

Angelina crouched down at stared at Matt's healing foot. "Good job on the mending, Kates," she said and then looked around for Oliver. When she spotted him, she pointed him out to the twins and the shorter one growled.

"Katie, dearest, can Freddie and I possibly borrow some brooms? We want to have a little chat with our caring mate, Oliver Wood." George's voice was filled with promised pain for the Scottish tyrant.

"Yea, take mine and Matt's. He won't be needing his anytime soon."

Fred and George smiled their thanks and went to yell some sense into Mr. Wood. Alicia sat down with a sigh and put her chin in her hands. "Amelia stopped by Angie's on her way home, and said we all needed to come quick. George and I were over watching the Muggle football game on the tellie, so with a quick pop, here we are." She gripped the hand that Katie held out for her.

"Leo, Daniel, these are my two best friends, Angelina and Alicia. We were chasers together in school," Katie introduced them.

Angelina laughed and moved closer to Matt's head. "We were more than chasers together," she said. "We were sisters."

"Pup, here would make a good sister," Daniel said, giving her a final pat on the back and standing up. "I'm sorry to rush out after just meeting you, Alicia, and nice seeing you again, Angelina. I figure now that you're all here and Puppy has stopped crying, I can go home. People tell me that there are over two-hundred muscles in your body, but what with the way I'm feeling now, I'd swear there were over four. I want a shot of firewhiskey, a kiss from my wife and my bed," he announced, with a wistful look in his eyes.

"Than what are you still doing here?" Alicia asked him, and he shrugged. He returned her smile and disappeared.

The small pop finally woke Matt. He started and then groaned when the pain in his foot registered in his head. Katie stroked his forehead and grinned down at him. "How you feeling?" she asked quietly.

"Like I want to kill Wood," he answered and then noticed Angelina and Alicia. "Hey, Angie…and I don't know you."

"Alicia," she supplied, grinning.

He gave her a slight wave and then looked up at Katie again. "Why is my head in your lap?"

"So that you wouldn't kill me when you found out that I was the one who cast the spell to regrow your bones." She smiled hopefully and he glowered.

"I'm not opposed to killing pillows," he announced.

"Yea, but if you kill that one, you're going to have to deal with us," Angelina interrupted.

Matt raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "I think I could take you!"

"Yea, but we come with the legendary Weasley twins," Alicia added. Matt blanched reached up to give Katie a loving pat on her cheek.

"I love my little puppy. Don't worry, I'll protect her no matter what. Just don't sic the Weasley's on me!"

"I see our reputation proceeds us!" George said suddenly, landing quietly behind Alicia. Fred landed beside him, and proceeded to scream at Oliver to get his 'guilty arse down here and apologize!' Oliver's shape huffed and leapt from the post to his broom. When he landed, he stared at Katie and Matt, the only two of his team left in the stadium.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. Katie was still petting Matt's head as the bones in his foot gave one final groan and settled. He winced as they did so, and it made Oliver's guilty face even sadder. "I'm really stupid," he added.

"Gee, you think so?" Alicia asked brightly.

Matt sat up and Katie stood. She stared at Oliver with a look that portrayed anger and exhaustion. "Never again," she said simply. He nodded and held a hand to help Matt limp to his feet. Matt gave him a manly hug as he said, "Next time, they're aiming at your foot, okay? Enough of this 'Matt's just the seeker. Let's hit very hard and scarily intelligent balls at him'."

Oliver laughed and nodded. "Next time, it won't even be the foot. I'll just stand still, and they can hit them at me. I won't even dodge, I promise."

"We're holding you to that!" George said before Oliver could realize what he had said.

"You're not even on the team!" Oliver exclaimed.

"Never stopped us before," Fred reminded the frowning Oliver.

"Fine."

Matt gave Katie a hug and whispered his thanks. Katie blushed at the feel of his breath on her ear, and returned the embrace.

Oliver had sent Katie home at the same time as the twins, Matt, Angelina and Alicia. He stayed to put the balls away and perform a cleaning spell on the locker room. He looked around the room and sighed, preparing himself for Katie's anger when he appeared in the

kitchen. Oliver apparated into their apartment – or, rather, tried to. When he opened his eyes, he was still standing in the locker room. He tried again, and again, he failed. He walked to the fireplace in the locker room that was mainly used for flooing and tried

to go home that way. Again, he was blocked.

"She can't seriously be this angry!" he exclaimed in frustration. With that, he decided to risk apparating into the neighborhood – even though it was muggle – because there was no way that he was walking the twenty miles to home.

Oliver landed with a small pop behind the dumpster in the back of his apartment complex. He hoisted his pack higher onto his shoulder and set out to his door. As he ascended the stairs he noticed a group of two or three men sitting outside his neighbor's door. "That's odd," he murmured to himself until he realized that the men were not in front of his neighbor's door, but rather, his own.

"What's going on here?" he asked in a rather bewildered voice.

One of the men looked up and said with a grin, "she's so hot, isn't she?"

"Uh, sure. Who are you talking about, though?" his responded.

"Katie Bell!" another man said in a tone that seemed to convey that Oliver must be stupid.

"Get off my stoop," Oliver growled, realizing why Katie had put protection spells around the apartment.

"What?" the last man asked. "This is where Katie Bell lives. Not you, you Scot."

"Excuse me? This is my apartment. I'm Oliver Wood. Go away now. And if I see any of you here again, I will put you in Mungo's, got it?" Oliver's tone was cheery, but his gaze was as hard as steel. The three men leapt to their feet and sidled past the angry Quidditch

player. He watched as the retreated down the steps and then stepped to the door and gave a slight knock.

**Righto...so, you've already read it, but have you reviewed it yet? Chances are no...so you know what that means right? It means its time to review. do it do it do it peer pressure! loves**


	7. Lonely People Tumble Downwards

**Hey guys! Sorry it's taken me almost a year to update. School got to be too much -- almost everything but homework, marching band and theater got squished out of my life. But I will be uploading mostly regularly this summer -- cept for a week when I have to go to DMA (drum major academy) due to the fact that I got Jr. Drum Major for my marching band! WOOT! And here's an extra long one (at least for me) for you guys. I hope you enjoy it. And please don't be cranky at me for not uploading forever. **

**ALSO: I decided to call the team "The Wasps"...I realized I hadn't named them before now...oops  
**

**Disclaimer: **only the story line

**Chapter 7: **Lonely People Tumble Downwards

* * *

"I said go away!" Katie yelled from inside the apartment.

"Kates, it's me! Open up!" Oliver banged on the door again. There was silence from inside the apartment, and then suddenly the door opened half way. Katie's hand shot out, grabbed Oliver's collar and yanked him inside. She slammed the door behind her and set the locks again.

"Katie, what's wrong? What happened?" Oliver dumped his equipment bags on the floor and led Katie to the couches. He sat across from her and waited for her to talk.

"Stupid _Witch Weekly_ published their 'Daring Damsels' issue. I got ranked number 5 and I didn't even realize it was coming out today, but when I got home, there were men outside, and they were asking me on dates and I don't want to go on a date with greasy warlocks. They smelled like Slytherins, you know."

Oliver laughed, and dodged the pillow Katie chucked at him. "Stop glaring at me!" he exclaimed, "I'm laughing because the smell of Slytherin has probably worn off by now. In all honesty, it usually wears off as soon as they shower. I'm sure even Slytherins shower."

"You'd be surprised," Katie grumbled.

"Puppy, you don't have to go on a date with anyone you don't want to, and you can lift the protection spells now that I'm home. I'll beat off any boy that comes near you. I'll just whack them with my big strong manly arms." Oliver grinned cheekily and flexed an arm to show her.

Katie laughed slightly, threw another pillow at him. "Fine, strong man, what do you want for dinner?"

"Fresh meat!" Oliver growled, still flexing.

Katie gave him an impish smile and darted into the kitchen calling over her shoulder "Be careful what you wish for!"

Oliver yelped and followed her into the kitchen.

&&&&&&

"Oliver! Katie! Over here! Over here!" "What's it like being the most famous couple in the magical world?" "When's the wedding?" "When did you realize it was love?" "Katie, what about Cameron?"

"What about him?" Katie stopped suddenly in front of the reporter on her way into the game.

The reporter looked shocked for a second that she was actually talking to him. "Rumors were that you're hot and heavy!" he explained.

Katie snorted, "Tell him he needs a new dictionary! That man is the lowest, scum-sucking, womanizing –"

"O-kay! That's enough, princess!" Oliver grabbed Katie by the shoulders and rushed her the rest of the way into the dressing room. He pushed her into the room, gave the reporters a quick smile and then locked the door. "No, we're not a couple," he explained automatically to the surprised members of team that were in the locker room. Amelia's face fell a tad, but then resumed neutral when she saw Katie's expression.

"Why didn't you just apparate here, guys?" Matt asked.

Oliver glared at his seeker. "Someone decided it might look odd to the neighbors if we never exit or enter the apartment. I told them we could just say we were hermits. She said she has never liked the ocean, and that was that."

"Genghis, I've heard of being whipped in relationship, but never outside of one." Daniel joked from the showers.

"I'm not whipped!" Oliver exclaimed.

Amelia snorted, but didn't say anything. Katie slammed her locker and glared at the only other female on the team. "He's not," she growled. "I'm just manipulative."

"What? Did you tell him he could have a cookie or something?" Matt asked, putting his second shoe on.

"Actually, yes…and when did you start speaking?" Oliver asked, opening his locker and beginning to change.

"When I was three."

"He means when did you start adding to conversations when there's more than two people involved, doofus," Justin said, kissing Amelia on the head as he sat between her and Matt.

"Oh…well…" Matt blushed.

"Did someone find some lovin' last night?" Justin nudged the young seeker in the ribs.

Matt blushed harder, and the team let our a collective whoop of laughter and congratulations. When everyone had finished pressing him on who it was, and how it had happened, Oliver called the team to order.

"Okay, guys, this is a tough team we're playing today. Their seeker's Dean Harrison, who's got one of the best sets of eyes I've ever seen, and their beaters are built, but –"

"Wow, Ollie, I always thought you liked girls!" Katie giggled, still finishing strapping on her pads.

"I am, but … oh. Get your mind out of the gutter, Bell. You know what I meant. Anyway, their chasers are the real things we need to worry about. They're a tricky bunch, and they really like the fake outs, so Justin, Daniel and Katie, I need you to keep your eyes open. Don't fall for any of their stupid tricks. And yes, Katie, I will remember that there are three hoops today. Amelia, your size is pretty much all you have going for you today. These guys are big, so get in there. Get under their swings, steal the bludgers right out from in front of them. Leo, let's see the new moves you've been working on, okay? Good. Mattie, watch their seeker. Guaranteed, he's gonna see it before you do, just make sure that he's not faking you out. We don't want you becoming broom kill the day after you find love. That's about it, so let's get out there and make them want their mommies."

"What's wrong with wanting your mommy?" Daniel asked. "I like my mommy. She makes good stew."

"Well, if we win, we'll all go have some of Danny's mommy's stew, but right now, we have a game to play. Stay focused guys. Now, line up, they're announcing the other team!" Oliver took his place at the end of the short line.

&&&&&

Matt's fingertips closed inconspicuously around the snitch just as on the other side of the field Katie felt the bludger connect with the hand holding her broom, and then not much else. She could tell that the broom had shattered upon impact, and that she had fallen, simply because she could see it getting farther and father away above her. Suddenly, through the fog of pain in her mind, she felt arms catch her and slow down her fall. Right before she passed out, she looked up into a pair of warm blue eyes she hadn't seen before.

Oliver saw the beater whack the solid black ball away from himself and towards Katie. He froze as it exploded into her hand holding the broom. He screamed as he saw her fall. A small part registered the referee blowing her whistle, but all of his concentration was on Katie as she plummeted towards the hard packed earth. And when their seeker caught her, he sped up to get to the guy before the nurse did.

"You hurt her even more, and I will personally make sure that you will never catch another snitch again!" Oliver growled as he pulled up beside the slim man.

"Hey, I don't swing the clubs. You should be thanking me," the guy retorted. Oliver continued to fly nervously around the seeker and Katie as they traveled toward ground.

The teams landed a few feet away from each other and from the quartet of seeker, chaser, keeper and nurse. Justin's arm was around Amelia as she watched her friend be laid gently on the grass. The nurse bent over the brunette and shook her head as she looked at Katie's hand.

Oliver glared at the seeker with such ferocity that he quickly returned to the safety of his own team. The nurse set a numbing spell upon Katie's hand and then walked towards the referee. The two women conferred for a bit, before the referee turned to announce to the crowd: "Due to the severe damage done to Chaser Bell's left hand, the rest of the game between the Wasps and the Sonic Flashes will be postponed for a week. Currently the score stands at 90 Wasps, 110 Flashes. The game will begin at the –"

"Wait!" Matt suddenly yelled, as the snitches angry wings flapped into his wrist.

The referee turned to look at him, and he walked towards her, holding out his hand. He let the snitch free as he reached her, and the swift golden ball held its place in the air long enough for the referee to grab it. She turned to Matt and whispered: "Young man, this is serious. Did you catch this after the whistle, or before?"

"Before."

"You're career could be ruined if you lie."

Matt looked the older woman in the eye, and said with more confidence than he normally had: "I caught the snitch just as Katie was hit. I was taught well. I don't lie, and anyway, I would much rather have all of our chasers conscious when we win a game, as opposed to just two. I caught it before the whistle, and if you don't believe me, that's okay."

Oliver, Justin, Daniel, Amelia and Leo all held their breath as the mildest member of their team stared down the referee and the fieriest member lay dead to the world on the ground.

Suddenly, the older woman turned back to the ground and announced "The final score of the game between the Wasps and Sonic Flashes is 240 to 110, Wasps. Any questions can be answered at an impromptu press conference with myself, and the two captains in half an hour." She turned to the nurse and gave the okay to have Katie transported off the field. "Captain Harrison, and Captain Wood, I expect to see you in half an hour. To the rest of you, I must say, it was an amazing game." The last part was said with a smile of appreciation that was rarely seen on someone who had seen so many Quidditch games.

Half an hour later, Oliver and the seeker from the Sonic Flashes, Dean Harrison, sat on either side of the referee, Martha Pandell, fielding questions from fans and reporters.

"How can you trust a person like Matt Tivoli? Captain Wood probably put him up to it! I wouldn't be surprised if that snitch was a fake!" one fan, elaborately dressed in the Flashes' colors, yelled.

"Captain Wood did not speak to Seeker Tivoli in the time between Chaser Bell's injury and the announcement of the final score. Mr. Tivoli caught the snitch fair and square." Martha Pandell patiently explained this for the eleventh time to the crowd of people in front of them.

"The Wasps won fair and square, and I only hope that they can accept my deepest and sincerest apologies for injuring Ms. Bell," Dean Harrison explained.

"Save it for someone who cares, Harrison," Oliver growled.

"Captain Wood, you're not helping," Ms. Pandell muttered to the surly Scotsman next to her. At that same point in time, a pen flew from the area where the Wasps were sitting and hit Oliver in the head. Oliver's "ow" caused the crowd to laugh good-naturedly.

"Oliver, I can understand why you're angry," Dean said soothingly.

"Really? I don't think you do. Thanks to your stupid beater my best friend and roommate has to have her hand reconstructed. The broom is also another issue. Unlike your team, where everyone has three brooms, we're forced to buy our brooms out of our own salaries. I don't really think you understand this." Oliver stood and began to walk away. He was stopped by Daniel, Justin and Leo.

"Sit" growled Leo. Oliver sat, and Leo performed an enhancing spell on his voice. "Ladies and gentlemen, it seems that although our captain is marvelous at the field aspect of his job, he does let his emotions over come him in situations like this. Our team therefore both accepts the Sonic Flashes' apology, and offers our own. We apologize for the way that our captain is behaving right now. He is simply stressed, as we all are, about whether or not Puppy's – I mean Ms. Bell's – hand will make a full recovery. Matt Tivoli also apologizes for not showing the snitch earlier as soon as he had caught it. We would also like to silence any rumors about Ms. Bell's and Captain Wood's relationship. It is purely platonic and although they do share a house, they do not share a bed. I know that I, and I believe the rest of the team agrees that it would be nice if the Wasps and Flashes could continue the friendly rivalry they currently share. Thank you to all, but I must ask for permission for the team to go visit our newest member in St. Mungo's. Ms. Pandell?"

The referee nodded in response to Leo's speech, and said "I can handle it from here. Your team should get to seeing if Ms. Bell is okay."

"If they don't mind, I would like to accompany them as well." Dean stood up at the same time as Oliver. Oliver seemed about ready to yell some more, but Justin's firm grip on his shoulder caused him to turn. Dean followed the Wasps out of the conference hall, while Martha Pandell continued to field questions.

&&&&&

At St. Mungo's hospital, Katie was still under intensive care when the team and Dean Harrison arrived. The nurse stopped the six people as they tried to enter her room. "I'm afraid I can only allow family in to see her. She's still unconscious, and her hand is almost completely shattered. It's going to take a few weeks to get back to normal, but the bones should be finished growing by tomorrow afternoon."

Oliver looked like he was ready to tackle the nurse, just as Kelsey came waddling down the hall. "I'm her sister! I'm Katie Bell's sister!" Kelsey said, pushing through the crowd. "Why, hello, Ollie! Nice to see that you're taking great care of my little sister," she said with glare. The nurse stepped aside to let the pregnant Kelsey into the room, and Oliver craned his neck to see inside.

"C'mon, Ollie, mate, let's get to the waiting room." Daniel steered his captain after the rest of the team and Dean down the hall.

* * *

**Sooo, I hope you liked it. Please review! You can nitpick if you want, I won't be sad. **

The title is from a Keane song called "She has no time"

Next chapter coming soon!


	8. Fine Enough I Guess

**hey guys, here's chapter eight. i hope you enjoy it...this one is actually longer than normal, as opposed to the last one that i said was longer than normal. don't forget to read and review!**

**disclaimer: **only the story line

**Chapter 8: **Fine Enough I Guess, Considering Everything's a Mess

* * *

The waiting room on the third floor of St. Mungo's was filled the next afternoon. Or, would have been filled, if the rest of the patrons could stand the odor of day old sweat long enough to actually sit on the half of the room where Oliver, Amelia, John, Matt, Leo, Daniel and Dean sat. Oliver was glaring daggers at Dean as he and Matt talked seeker tactics, while Amelia slept soundly on John's shoulder, and Leo and Daniel utilized the hospitals set of Wizard's Chess. 

"Yea, no, the Wronsky Feint is quite possibly the worst thing to do to a fellow seeker. I would only do it to someone who was playing really dirty. There's too much of a chance that the other guy could get needlessly hurt," Dean was saying.

"So, the old saying 'treat others like you want to be treated'?" Matt asked and Dean nodded.

"Yea. Like, let's say you do the feint to someone, and then the next time you play him, he's got a grudge against you, so he –"

"Seems like a weak way to live," Oliver muttered. The two seekers turned and stared at him.

"I beg your pardon?" Dean asked.

"You heard me, Harrison. Don't play dumb. Why are you still here anyway? Shouldn't you be off trying to spread love and happiness?" sneered Oliver.

Dean looked taken aback for a second. "Harry's already beaten Voldemort, Wood. You should know that. There's sort of an abundance of love and happiness going on right now. At least, for our kind."

"I know Harry's already beaten Voldemort! I haven't been living under a rock for the past two years! Harry was my seeker in Gryffindor! Apart from Katie, who's currently regrowing her hand no thanks to you, he was one of the ones that I could count on the most! He used every trick he knew to insure that we would win the cup! And we almost did, but the games came to Hogwarts that year. So, just stop teaching my seeker how to be a loving caring nitwit –"

"I'm looking for a Mr. Harrison?" the nurse had entered the waiting room, silencing Oliver in mid-rant.

Dean stood up saying, "That's me."

"Ms. Bell wants to see you. I'll take you down there. She also says to tell Oliver sorry for 'pulling a Harry' and losing the game." The nurse looked quizzically at the young Scotsman, who just looked confused and pained. The nurse then turned, beckoning Dean to follow her, and they disappeared down the hall.

"Hey, Ollie, mate, it'll be okay. Katie probably just wants to thank him as soon as she can so she doesn't have to see him for very long." Leo reached out and patted his captain on the shoulder. "Katie knows who's got her back, don't worry." Oliver nodded, but the disappointment and confusion didn't leave his face.

&&&&&

Down the hall, Dean entered a dimly lit room to see Katie sitting up in bed, holding her injured hand in the other one. She sat up straighter as he came in.

"You caught me right?" she asked, mentally cursing herself for not putting some effort into her appearance.

Dean nodded, and then sat in the chair Katie motioned him to. "I've already had words with the beater who did this. He claims it was an accident, but I told him to be more careful anyway."

"No, it's okay. I understand. I just wanted to thank you for catching me though. I can't believe I let go of the broom. I haven't done that since I was like, five. Merlin, it's so embarrassing." She blushed, and looked down at her still swollen hand. "Pretty colors though," she remarked.

"You didn't let go of the broom…it, um, let go of you," Dean said with a smile.

Katie looked confused. "What do you mean?" _Merlin, he's gorgeous when he does that,_ she thought.

"The bludger smashed through your broom. There wasn't anything left for you to hang on to. The referee was going to postpone the game for a week or so, but it turns out that your seeker caught the snitch right as your hand went bye-bye."

Katie paled, despite hearing about the win. "My broom's ruined?" her voice came out slightly weaker than before, due to the thoughts of debt running through her head.

Dean nodded, and Katie broke into a long string of swears. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold on. Before you think that all hope is lost, I've talked the Sonic Flashes manager into replacing your broom. Unfortunately, they don't make that model anymore, but I assured him you wouldn't say no to an upgrade. I hope that's okay with you." As Katie's jaw dropped, Dean grinned. "Is that okay, Guppy? That's what they call you, right?"

"It's Puppy," _but you can call me whatever you want if you're that beautiful and replacing my broom_, she finished mentally.

"Not when your mouth is open like that." Katie's mouth snapped shut, and she breathed a sigh to slow her beating heart.

"I can't thank you enough. I…wow. That takes a sudden load off my shoulders. Uhm, do you want to pay for my hospital bills too?" She grinned cheekily at the young man by her bed.

"Don't push it. You know, for a team whose players have been ranked some of the highest in scoring and attractiveness in the country, it's surprising that you all don't have five brooms each."

"None of us came from extremely rich families, and being a relatively new team as well…well, let's just say our manager happens to be Amelia's father, and the uniforms were all sewn by Oliver's mother. We're popular, but poor. We're a 'team for the masses'," Katie laughed a little as she quoted one of the Wasps advertisement posters.

"As opposed to…?"

"You know, I don't know. I just fly around on my broomstick and follow Genghis Wood's orders like a good little chaser," she joked.

Dean laughed at the team's nickname for their captain. "So, he's really tough is he? I couldn't tell. You know, he only tried to kill me with looks in the waiting room."

Katie winced. "Sorry about that. He's not actually that tough. He's a lot of bark but very little bite. He's a big sweetie when you know how to handle him."

"And how is that?"

"If I told you, you would let the information leak out into the masses and our team would have no edge," Katie said smiling.

"You seem pretty edgy yourself though. Is there a special way to handle you as well?"

"Mr. Harrison!" Katie exclaimed, grinning. "I do believe you're flirting with me!"

"So what if I am? Is Oliver going to try to kill me over that too?" Dean's smile disappeared as he noticed Katie's expression. "I take it there's a history with you two," Dean said leaning back in his chair and cocking an eyebrow.

"Oh, yes. We're actually living together now."

Dean looked confused for a moment. "I thought you were single though. I was all ready to ask you out to dinner, and now I find you're living with a guy. No wonder he –"

"No! No! We're not together. I got kicked out of my house and Oliver's letting me crash on his couch. Well, my couch because his is really icky. He's just very Quidditch oriented. Thinks that romance gets in the way of the game, but um…I'm still open for going out to dinner and things like that." _Definitely things like that with someone like you,_ Katie said mentally, and blushed.

A smile broke out on Dean's face, and the effect was not lost on Katie. She noticed how straight and white his teeth were, and how his tanned face crinkled around his eyes. "How about I pick you up at seven on Friday. You should be out of here by then and you have Saturday off, right?" he got up to leave.

Katie nodded eagerly. "I'll see you at seven. Could you send Amelia in?" she smiled, and giggled as he bowed out the door.

Amelia burst through the door less than a minute later, saying "Katie! You're all right! Kelsey was here all last night, but you didn't wake up, and then her husband came to get her and practically dragged her out kicking and screaming, but he said that she was supposed to be on bed rest and she said she didn't care and you're not listening to anything I'm saying are you? Why are you smiling like that? Katie?"

Katie turned her grin to her fellow teammate. "I have a date in two days with Dean Harrison," she said. Amelia gaped at her for a second before squealing and leaping to sit next to Katie on the bed.

"Oh Merlin, you have to tell me all about it! Where he takes you, what you wear…No! I'm helping you get ready! You're terrible at dressing like a girl…don't make that face, Katie; you know it as well as I do. Plus you live at Oliver's, and in the living room, and you can't get ready for a date with the richest player in London in a boy's bathroom, especially one who draws Quidditch plays in the dust on your television!"

"That was one time, and it's not like we use it anyway!" Katie protested.

"It still happened. You can't get ready there, so you'll get ready at my house, and we'll kick John out. And then when you get back, you have to call me and tell me and oh my! This is amazing! I'm so jealous," she gushed.

"I don't have anything to wear though. The last date I went on was in a pub, and I'm pretty sure that this isn't going to be some pub we go to!"

"No problem! I have an adorable slinky black dress that would look perfect with your complexion."

"Amelia, you're forgetting that you're smaller than me," Katie reminded her friend.

"Magic, sweetie, it's a marvelous thing," Amelia said, patting Katie's arm. "P.S, the bruises are amazing!" Amelia grinned maniacally, and Katie laughed.

The nurse entered the room than and looked at the two women chatting happily. "Well, ladies, I hate to break up a good gossip session, but the doctors have decided that you can go home Katie, m'dear. As long as you keep that hand on ice and don't play any Quidditch for a few weeks, you should be fine. Let the swelling go down before you start lifting anything heavier than a pen with it, and then start small." She smiled good-naturedly and left the room to get the release forms.

&&&&&

When Katie got to her apartment an hour later, she was furious. "Oliver Julius Wood! Where are you?"

"Far away from you!" came his voice from his room.

Katie walked around the couches and into the hallway outside his room. "What is your problem? You sit around in the waiting room all night and all day and then you go home when I wake up? What is that?"

Oliver opened his door, and Katie backed up. His face was a mix of disappointment and anger. "Why should I stick around when you were going to have everyone but me visit you in your room? I'm supposedly one of your best friends, Katie. I'm your roommate for Merlin's sake, and you still ask Dean Harrison in to visit you before me. And then, on top of that, you ask Amelia into your room afterwards. Where was I in your list? After the old man who smelled like cheese and sunscreen?"

"There was an old man who smelled like cheese and sunscreen?" Katie's attention span wavered for a moment before she realized that weird smelling old men were not the point. "Oliver, I'm sorry. I didn't realize it was that important."

Oliver snorted. "You didn't care," he said callously.

"That's not true!" Katie protested.

"Really, Bell? I mean, I would have done the same thing if some beautiful blonde had rescued me from the air. Just tell me, did you let him in your hospital bed right off the bat, or did you spend time getting to know each other a little before?" Oliver pushed past her into the living room and Katie followed, shocked.

"You think I _slept_ with him?"

"Why else would he come into the room grinning like a Cheshire cat? Men don't grin like that because a woman forgave them, Katie. They only grin like that when they've gotten some," Oliver spat. He stood next to a pile of papers that Katie knew he had spent hours the night before organizing.

Katie sat on her couch across from him and stared at him. "Sometimes men grin like that when a pretty girl says yes to going on a date with them," she said icily.

"I can't believe you!" Oliver exploded, pushing his hand through the pile in his fury. "Crap! Look at what you made me do!"

"I didn't make you do anything! Stop blaming me for things that aren't my fault!"

"You're the one going on the date with the guy! That seems like its your fault!"

"It's not my fault that some people think I'm attractive and want to get to know me better!"

"That's not all he wants though! Merlin, Katherine, his teammate shattered your hand and you're going on a date with him! I always knew you could play dumb, Katie, but I didn't know you actually were."

Katie exhaled and stood. "Again, Oliver, I'm sorry. I'll be back later. Hopefully by then, you've come to your senses." She walked silently to the fireplace, picked up a handful of floo powder, threw it in, and calmly asked for Alicia's home. As she disappeared in a flash of green light, Oliver muttered a swear and apparated to the Dancing Donkey to get royally drunk.

&&&&&

At midnight that night, Katie got home to see an owl on her porch railing. She opened the front door and stepped outside. The owl stuck out its leg and hooted at her. She dug a treat out of her pocket and gave it to the owl and untied the note from its ankle. The owl flew off into the night with another hoot as Katie opened the note. _If you're looking for him, Oliver's at the Dancing Donkey and in need of some assistance, _the note read. Katie sighed and stepped back into her house. She locked the door and apparated to the cozy pub.

She arrived with a pop and immediately saw Oliver slumped on the bar. As she walked closer, she noticed him walking peanuts around the edge of his glass and then making them fall in with small cries of "Oh no! Save me! Peanut down!" The bartender looked up, saw her hand and put down the glass he was cleaning.

"You're Katie Bell, right?" he asked, coming around to the patron's side. Katie nodded as Oliver turned and noticed her. "He's been talking about you for hours now. Figured you were the one to notify to come and get him."

"Katie!" Oliver yelled drunkenly. "Come, have a drink with me! Together we'll drown all the peanuts in the world!"

"Oliver, you're drunk," Katie told him, and then turned to the bartender, "I'm so sorry," she said.

"Happens more often than not, Miss," he said, shrugging. "Do you need help getting him out of here?"

"No, I think I'll be okay. I'll just apparate home with him. Thank you for waiting for me. I know it's after closing," she said, smiling.

"Katie! Drown the peanuts with me! Whoops! Peanut down! Peanut down!" Oliver giggled.

"C'mon, Ollie, let's go home, okay? We've got bigger and better peanuts at home for you to drown!" Katie said in a voice that was brighter than she was feeling. The bartender laughed and went back to cleaning glasses.

Oliver shook his head. "No we don't, Katie. We don't have any peanuts at home."

"Yes we do. I picked some up on the way home. C'mon, let's go drown those ones."

Oliver looked at her for a second, as if to judge if she was lying and tried to stand. He staggered against the bar and finally balanced himself in a standing position. "Katie," he said, "I don't think I can walk. I think I might be a little bit drunk!"

Katie sighed, "I know, Ollie. But you can rest on my shoulder and I'll help you home. Okay?"

Oliver nodded and collapsed on Katie's shoulder as she maneuvered next to him. She thanked the bartender again and apparated with a pop.

With another pop, she and Oliver landed in the living room, lost their balance and fell over onto her couch. "Oomph! Oliver, get off me," Katie said, trying to push the blocky keeper off her.

"I'm really sorry about before, Katie. I don't think you're a slut. I think you're a very nice girl. I love you. Marry me," Oliver said, not budging an inch, but instead curling closer to her.

"You're drunk, Oliver," Katie reminded him.

Oliver shook his head and insisted, "No, I mean it! You're not a slut and I want to life the rest of my spend with you! I mean spend the life of my rest with you. I mean –"

Katie sighed. "Okay, Ollie. I'll marry you, but before we tell people, we need to sleep, right? So, let's get off me and we'll go to sleep." She tried to push him again, and he finally rolled off her onto the floor. She looked over the edge to see him sound asleep on the floor. Digging her wand out of her Quidditch bag, she stood up, muttered a levitating spell and narrated him into his bed. _The things I do for this man_, she thought to herself as she pulled the covers up to his chin and said a quiet goodnight to his sleeping form.

&&&&&

The next morning, Katie stood in the kitchen making tea for herself when from Oliver's bedroom, she heard a smash, a swear and a pitiful wail of "Katie!" She grinned, took some hangover potion out of the fridge and walked into Oliver's room.

"Good morning, sunshine!" she said brightly, opening the curtains.

"I'll beat you with a …I feel sick," Oliver moaned from underneath the covers, trying to repress gagging sounds. Katie laughed and Oliver moaned again. "It's not funny," he remarked.

"Oh yes it is, Ollie. And last night you were entertaining too!" Katie said and yanked the covers down from her keeper's head.

He recoiled from the sunlight. "What happened?" he asked putting one hand to his head and the other reached out to the hangover potion in her hand. Katie pulled her hand just out of his reach and grinned. "I was drowning peanuts again, wasn't I?" he sighed.

"Not only that, but you professed your love for me, and asked me to marry you!"

Oliver tried to nod sarcastically without moving his head too much. "I'm sure I did. Just give me the potion, and I wont make you do ground laps today."

"I'm not allowed to play any type of Quidditch this week, and that includes ground laps. Doctor's orders!" she sing-songed and finally handed him the potion out of pity. After gulping it down, he sat up a bit and sighed.

"I'm sorry, Katie," Oliver breathed.

Katie sat next to him and nodded. "I know. It just hurts to hear things like that from you."

Oliver held out an arm and she crawled under it and rested against him. "We're a pair aren't we?" he asked her.

He felt her nod and then heard her say, "Yea. Me not having my best friend in the hospital room first thing, and you with your drowning peanuts obsession. We're a pretty intelligent duo."

Oliver grinned, "Well, someone has to be the dim candle in the room. Our room just happens to have two."

"That's okay. This way, the fact that you draw plays in the dust on our television isn't as noticeable." She looked up at him and winked.

"One time!" he protested and chuckled. "Okay Kates, let's –" he was cut off by an apparation-pop heard from the living-room. Katie glanced at him and he shrugged. "Let's go see who decided to drop in."

They got up and walked out of Oliver's bedroom to see a muscular man in Wasps colors standing in the living room. "Out!" Oliver demanded, brandishing the beaters bat he had picked up on his way out of his room. _I don't believe fans. They know nothing about the privacy of my own home! _he thought.

The man stepped forward, and flexed a little as he said, "Get out of the way, Scot. My business is with the lady." Katie shrank behind Oliver and wished fervently that their wands were not sitting in their Quidditch bags on the other side of the room.

"Your business is with me," Oliver corrected the man. He stepped forward and stared menacingly at the keeper. Oliver held his ground.

"I'm here to rescue Katie. Obviously you aren't taking care of her very well if she's getting her hand smashed by useless buggers. So, you either move out of the way, or I make you move out of the way." The man cracked his knuckles threateningly, and Oliver readjusted his grip on the bat. "Now, Wood."

Oliver felt Katie's hand pulling at his sleeve and he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She pulled again, stronger this time, so that his hands, and the beater bat came closer to her. While the bulky stranger was still staring at Oliver, waiting for him to move, Katie seized the bat out of the keeper's hands and swung. The man went down like a stone and Katie shoved past Oliver to stand with one foot on his chest and the bat pressing lightly on the stranger's throat.

"I don't need your help. Now, get out of my apartment, or I'll hit you again," she said through gritted teeth. The stranger nodded and apparated out of the apartment, causing Katie to fall forward when his bulk disappeared from under her foot. Oliver caught her and helped her onto the couch where she sat wheezing.

"Are you okay? What's wrong?" he asked, kneeling in front of her.

"I … swung … with…" she held up her injured left hand and Oliver leapt up to retrieve ice from the kitchen. When he returned and her swollen hand was ensconced in ice, he sat on the coffee table with his hands still on her shoulders.

"Better?" he asked. She nodded, and he said, "Just, don't hit a man there again. That's just not right."

"I'll continue hitting men there as long as they continue to be led by their peckers," she glowered. "And I _told_ you we needed an Anti-Intruder Jinx on the apartment."

Oliver looked confused for a moment and then said, "Um, Kates, no you didn't."

"Well, then I thought it very strongly towards you," Katie said with a shrug.

"Next time, think it very strongly _out loud_."

"Next time, read my mind."

* * *

**the title is from a barenaked ladies song (called: pinch me) **

**read and review though, please. sorry if it had some long and boring parts...i realize its not the best i've ever written. hopefully, the next will be better.  
**


	9. All you have to do is call my name

**oh my goodness! i forgot to thank all of you who reviewed and put me on the story alert and all of that! i'm really sorry for doing that guys. your reviews are amazing and thank you so much for taking time out of your days to do that! this chapter is dedicated to all of you who reviewed/put me on the story alert. Loves!  
**

**disclaimer: **only the storyline

**Chapter 9: **All you have to do is call my name

* * *

"Your flat is amazing!" Katie gushed as she entered Dean's apartment behind him. The walls were a perfect white, as were the couches and the rugs. Everything else was either glass or black. She hadn't been in something so clean feeling in a long time. He turned and smiled at her.

"May I take your cloak?" he asked, and she obliged by handing her pale gray cloak to him. His eyes again ran appreciatively over the slinky black dress she had borrowed from Amelia and Katie blushed. "I know I've already told you, but I have to repeat it. That dress looks amazing on you."

Katie blushed harder, murmured a thank you and followed him to the couch. She sat on it as he poured her a glass of firewhiskey. "I hope tonight wasn't too boring," he said, sitting next to her.

"Oh no! It was amazing! I've never been to an opera before, let alone a muggle one! The music was gorgeous!" Katie took a sip of the liquid and tried not to make a face. _Wow, for a man who makes so much, he sure buys cheap brews,_ she thought to herself.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

Katie shook her head and set her glass down on the table. "No, it's fine. I'm just used to a different brand is all."

Dean nodded knowingly, but Katie could tell he had no idea what she was talking about. That was the fourth time that he had done something like that on the date, she noted. She liked Dean, it was just she kept feeling like he was used to dating less intelligent women. Earlier that evening, he had explained the London underground system to her in one of the most condescending tones she had heard in a long time. She had wondered briefly what he would have said if she had told him she received top marks in her Muggle Studies class. Despite the fact that he was courteous and a perfect gentleman the rest of the night, there was a part of her that kept wishing she was with other people.

"When did you decide you wanted to be a professional seeker?" she asked, returning her thoughts to the current time and place.

"Well, when I was playing at Durmstrang one of the pros had come to watch our game, and they pretty much recruited me for their team. I had never really thought about playing a game as a living before then, although I knew that people did. What about you, when did you decide?" he asked, leaning towards her and also setting his glass down.

"When I was four," Katie answered simply.

"Wow, so you've been playing for a long time!" he remarked, smiling. Katie noticed his eyes slide across her figure again. "I'm sorry, I just have to ask. Would you mind if I kissed you?"

Katie's mind raced as she tried to comprehend the topic change. She fumbled for words to say and then finally settled on: "Sure, why not?" She smiled nervously. Dean grinned and took her face in his hands.

As he kissed her, Katie struggled internally. Half of her, the half that was led by hormones and who had been dying for some action was pretty much cheering as if they had won the Quidditch World Cup; the other half of her though, kept repeating one question over and over: What about Oliver? She tried to pull her head away a few minutes later, but his hands prevented her from moving. She next attempted pulling her whole self away, but he responded with pushing her down onto the couch. He kept kissing her the whole time, but now Katie could feel his hands wandering lower than her cheeks. _Oh no way! Not while I can still kick and scratch! _ Katie thought and pushed hard on his chest. He raised himself up long enough to take a breath, but then started kissing her neck.

"Dean, I don't really think that we should be doing this on the first date!" she protested, trying again to push him off. He ignored her, instead moving his kissing to replace the strap he had just slid off her shoulder. "Dean, get off me or I'll get violent!" she warned, but he just chuckled like he couldn't wait. _That's it_, she decided as he slowly slid her dress down farther, kissing as he went. She violently raised her right leg, which he had been straddling. Dean let out an "oomph" sound, and Katie kicked him again, just to be sure. She pushed him off of her and got up.

Katie stood over him as he continued trying to catch his breath lying on the floor. "Used to looser women, are you?" she asked. He stared at her and she shook her head. "To think that I thought you were different than other men," she said, and disapperated to home.

She landed with a pop in her own beat-up living room and realized she was crying. "Oliver?" she called out. When no one answered her, she took a few steps towards his room and called again. The flat stayed silent and dark. Katie walked to his room and looked in the open door. As Katie registered that Oliver wasn't home to help her, and that her hand had begun hurting again from pushing him away, she walked into the empty bedroom and sat on the empty bed. Before she knew it, she had cried herself to sleep, hugging his pillow for comfort.

Oliver came home from Fred Weasley's house a little over an hour later. He noticed Katie's empty couch and a part of him wilted inside. _Guess she's still out with Mr. Wonderful_, he thought and entered his dark room. He stripped off outer clothes until he was wearing simply a pair of maroon boxers with golden snitches on them. As he reached to pull back his covers he finally noticed Katie and screamed in surprise. Katie sprang up just as Oliver jumped back and the two teammates stood looking at each other across the small dark room.

"Katie!" Oliver said finally, "What are you doing here?" He noticed the low-cut black dress and the make-up tracks down her cheeks and changed his question. "What happened?" He walked slowly towards her and she wrapped his quilt around herself.

"He kissed me," she stated quietly, not meeting his eyes.

"And you ran away screaming? I didn't know someone could be that bad of a kisser," Oliver said with a smile, which disappeared when Katie raised her eyes to his. A few tears leaked out and she shook her head. He squatted in front of her, with his hands on her knees to steady himself. "Want to talk about it?" he asked.

"Want to put on pants first?"

Oliver laughed and as he stood to grab sweats, he joked with her: "No matter how upset you are, you always have a snarky comment up your sleeve, don't you?" Katie grinned cheekily, even if it was watery. Oliver returned to the bed and sat next to her. "_Now_ do you want to talk about it?"

Katie nodded. "It started out really nice," she began. "He picked me up from Amelia's and said we were taking the underground. So we get on it, and it's not very crowded so he starts explaining how it works to me."

"Did he know you got top marks in that class?"

"No, and don't interrupt or I won't tell you the rest." Oliver nodded, and she continued, "So we got to the opera house eventually and we get out and we're waiting in line and he tells me I look nice and I say that he does too and other than that, not much was said. Then we get inside and we're lead to a special box that's right near the stage and the show begins. I do have to say, the show was amazing! The costumes were so outrageous and the singing was so…perfect. You would hate it though, since there was no Quidditch."

"Hey!" Oliver interrupted again, but was silenced by Katie's look. "Okay, okay, continue."

"So, then we take the underground back to his flat and we take the lift up and we get in, and it was…wow. It was clean and pristine and there were no plays drawn on the walls and no old couches and nothing to make it feel like someone actually lived there. But then he tells me I look amazing again and serves me cheap firewhiskey. I asked him when he decided to become a professional player and he told me, and then asked me the same question. I answered him, and he asked if he could kiss me, so I said sure, because you know…well actually, you don't know." Katie was speaking quickly and not looking at him, instead choosing to twist the quilt in her hands. "I don't even know, but he like, grabs my face and starts kissing me, and there's way too much tongue and even though half of me was like 'Thank Merlin, finally some action!' the other half of me kept going 'What about Oliver?' and then –"

"What about me?" Oliver asked, confused.

"No interruptions!" Katie said, and continued. "and then I tried to pull away and he pushes me down on the couch and his hands start wandering lower, and I know you said I need to stop hitting men in their groins, but this time I thought he deserved it, since he obviously wasn't any good at reading body language, so I nailed him in the groin and he didn't get off me, so I did it again, and this time he rolled off me and I got up and left and came here. You weren't home though and my hand was hurting and I just wanted a hug and you normally give me a hug when I'm sad, but you weren't home and so I didn't know what to do and," she had started crying again.

Oliver hugged her tighter and started rocking side to side with her. She clung to him and he let her cry for awhile, before finally saying, "You can hit men in the groins when they're doing stuff like that to you." Katie pulled her head up and looked at him. He brushed her tears away and whispered, "What about me, Katie?"

She tried to leap from the bed, but Oliver held her back. Her crying increased and she began flailing. As her left hand collided with his temple, she cried out in pain and collapsed in his arms. "Okay, okay, Kates. No more questions, I understand. How about you go put on some pajamas, and then you can stay in here tonight? Does that sound good? I'll protect you from anyone else tonight, I promise."

"No more questions though," Katie said.

"No more questions, and an extra strong numbing spell for that hand," Oliver bargained.

"Deal," Katie agreed.

With the pain slowly being masked by the numbing spell on her hand, Katie crawled into the bed next to Oliver. He kept his distance until Katie nestled closer to him. "Will you hug me till I fall asleep?" she asked so quietly that Oliver barely heard her. He wrapped his arms around her nonetheless and she lay her head on his bare chest.

"Goodnight, Katie," Oliver whispered, but she was already asleep.

&&&&&

Oliver woke a few hours later, as the sun was just barely rising. He looked down at the weight on his chest, realized it was Katie and suddenly felt as if he was back in Gryffindor after the Halloween party. He realized now, as he stared down at Katie's tousled brown hair and pale hand resting against his bare chest that he wouldn't mind waking up like this for the rest of his life. "Katie," he whispered to her sleeping form, "I love you." She murmured what he thought sounded like "you're drunk" but couldn't be sure. He smiled to himself, shifted position a little and went back to sleep.

&&&&&

_Beepbeepbeep…beepbeepbeep…beepbeepbeep…whack. _Oliver's hand hit the off button on the muggle alarm clock hard enough that the table shook and his wand rolled off onto the floor. Katie made a groaning sound and rolled over, opening her eyes. She glared at him for a second as if trying to figure out why there was a boy in her bed and then she realized where she was.

"Oliver?" she asked groggily.

"Mmm?" he answered, equally groggily.

"Why am I in your bed?" she asked, yawning hugely.

Oliver resisted the irrational urge to poke her tongue and said instead, "Because your date went horrible last night."

Comprehension dawned in Katie's sleepy eyes and nodded. "Oh …right," she said, and was silent

Ten minutes passed in which the two said nothing but yawned a lot.

"Oliver?"

"Mmm?"

"Why did the alarm go off at eight?"

"Because we have practice at eight-thirty."

"Oh …right."

Another minute passed, and then their brains finally kicked into gear and with a simultaneous shout of "Oh crap!" they launched themselves out of bed. Twenty minutes, and a lot of shouting: "get out of the bathroom!" later, the two teammates flooed themselves to the teams locker rooms.

"Katie!" Amelia squealed, seeing them arrive. "How did the date go?"

Katie smiled but said nothing. She instead just opened her locker rather more forceful than usual and took her training uniform out. Still without speaking, she stepped behind the screen that the girls changed behind. Amelia looked hopelessly at Oliver, who shrugged.

"Hey, Kates?" he called.

"No questions," she said quietly from behind the screen.

"Righto!" Oliver flipped his locker shut and leaned against it, holding his uniform in his arms. "It went horrible, and she would prefer if no one talked to her about Dean Harrison, Sonic Flashes, dating, kisses, et cetera et cetera. She tried to make me add bludgers and beaters to that list, but I had to veto those." Oliver chuckled to himself, and then ducked as a wrist guard smacked into the locker right above his head. "Katie!" he appealed to her as she stalked around the barrier.

"I will be sitting in the third row of the home team side of the stadium if you need me," she said, and marched out of the room.

Matt looked at Oliver and said, "What really happened, Genghis?"

Oliver sighed, sat on the bench and motioned for everyone to gather around. He leaned forward conspiratorially. "If Katie asks, just tell her we were talking tactics. Here's what happened. Are you ready? Can you handle it?" His team nodded excitedly. "Well then, too bad. We've already had a fight, and she's kicked two separate men in the special area this week – one of them twice. Right now, anything she says, _goes_." He stood up and walked out of the room laughing as his team made noises of protest and mock anger at his small trick.

Four hours later, Oliver flew silently towards Katie's seemingly napping form. The rest of the team watched from the middle of the field, taking bets on how Oliver would react to a team member sleeping at practice and how he would wake her up.

"Back off, Oliver," Katie said loud enough for only her captain to hear. Oliver jumped, causing him to nearly fall off his broom. Katie laughed when she heard Amelia's excited whoop and the men's groans as they passed over their money, but didn't open her eyes.

"That wasn't funny, Bell," Oliver huffed.

"Whatever you say, peanut killer," she muttered.

"Katherine, you're really not setting a good example for the team!" Oliver whined and Katie opened an eye. "Could you at least sit up and look interested?" Katie shrugged, but sat up anyhow.

"Isn't practice over anyway?" she asked, watching Amelia wrestle a bludger into the box.

"It's not over until I say it's over!"

Katie inclined her head towards the team filing off the field and Oliver turned to stare. He sighed dejectedly and turned back to his chaser. "Guess I said it was over. I don't remember that though. Do you want a ride back?" At her nod, he hovered in front of the stands and guided her onto the back of his broom.

&&&&&

Two nights later, Katie and Oliver joined Fred, George, Angelina and Alicia for drinks at the Dancing Donkey. Katie seemed more relaxed than she had been in the past few days, and Oliver did not fail to notice. He attributed the change in mood to being surrounded by close friends, but _then again,_ he thought, _it could be the two shots of firewhiskey she's already downed. _Katie laughed at something Fred said, and Oliver returned to the conversation at hand.

"So there's George," Fred was saying to Katie, "swinging around and around on the broom, and the girls are freaking out. Angie gave me a bruise even!" Fred proudly pulled his sleeve up to show the purple discoloration on his upper arm.

"I said I was sorry!" Angelina exclaimed, trying to get Fred to pull his sleeve back down.

"Ollie, mate, I believe it is your round," Fred said, ignoring the frantic girl next to him and holding up his empty glass.

"I thought it was Alicia's!" the keeper protested, but she shook her head innocently. He glared at her, but got up to get more drinks for the table anyway.

As Katie watched Oliver talking to the bartender, Angelina leaned towards the chaser and said quietly, "Don't look now, but Dean just entered the pub." Katie's head whipped around and saw Dean coming through the doors of the pub with a few of his teammates. He spotted them in their corner booth and started to come over, a smile plastered on his face. One of his group peeled off to get a round of drinks for everyone, and the rest chose a table somewhere in the center of the tavern.

George and Fred watched Katie closely, Oliver having told them the date went horribly, but not the details, as Dean approached. He reached the table and stood behind Alicia.

"Katie Bell!" Dean exclaimed. "How're you doing? I hope the hand isn't causing you too much trouble?" He leaned nonchalantly on Alicia's chair, and she stiffened. She felt George slip her hand into his and give it a protective squeeze.

"It's great. How about you? Still bruised?" Katie smirked. She noticed Oliver turn from the bar with a tray of drinks, see Dean at their table and set the drinks back on the counter. A knot in her loosened as she saw him head towards them with a dark look in his brown eyes.

"Harrison," Oliver growled as he came to stand next to Katie with a hand on her shoulder.

"Wood. Look, before you all lose it and attack me -- don't think I don't notice those glares, Weaseley's -- I just wanted to apologize to Katie. I am very sorry for making you feel uncomfortable a few days ago. You're simply irresistible, though. I do hope you can forgive me. The broom will also be coming in a few days," Dean grinned; knowing that by apologizing Katie was in the wrong if she said anything mean to him. He saw her jaw twitch before she opened her mouth to speak.

"Thank you," she said tersely. Dean gave a bow and then walked to his own table.

"Merlin, that man is a prick!" George said when he knew the seeker was out of earshot.

"You can say that again," Alicia said.

"Okay. Merlin, that man is a prick!" George grinned as Alicia glared at him. The rest laughed and much of the tension was lost.

Oliver sank down next to Katie, sliding his arm around her shoulders. She leaned heavily against him; murmuring "you left our drinks up there," quiet enough so that only he could hear.

He said back just as quiet, "yea, but then I would have left you to face him alone."

"I had George, Fred and the girls," Katie said.

"Would you rather I hadn't come back?" At the shake of her head, he added, "See?"

The rest noticed the intimate exchange but said nothing until Oliver looked back up at them. "What?" he asked and they hurriedly looked anywhere but at the pair of Wasps.

Conversation started up again slowly after that, but something had changed. Katie and the girls weren't as bubbly as they had been before, making the guys less prone to jokes. Soon, the twins with their respective girlfriends announced their departures, and Katie and Oliver apparated home.

"Ollie?" Katie asked from the bathroom fifteen minutes later.

"What's up, Kates?" he asked, coming to lean in the doorway of the small bathroom.

"I just…um…well, I…erm…" she bit her lip in consternation and almost tore her washcloth in two while Oliver stared on.

"Let me guess," he said finally. "You want to stay in my room again because we saw Dean again tonight and it's bringing back the insecurities that you thought you had successfully locked away in that closet where you keep all of your worries and less than happy feelings, but he came along tonight and _ka-bam!_ The closet is flooding open again, and you don't want to sleep on your own because the last time this kind of thing happened you got nightmares and woke up in my bed anyway, so you're thinking why not just start there. Right?"

"Ka-bam?" was all she said as she practically skipped across the hall to his room.

"I knew reading Leo's American comic book collection was going to bite me in the butt someday!" he said, following her and shutting his door.

"Thank you though," Katie said quietly, climbing into the bed after him. She snuggled closer to him and whispered, "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"I do," stated Oliver. "Instead of waking up screaming and getting a hug from me, you'd just wake up screaming. The real question is, what would I do without you?"

"Have no one to hug," Katie answered simply, and settled in for sleep.

* * *

**That concludes chapter 9...please read and review! **

**Chapter title from "Where you lead, I will follow" by Carole King and Louise Goffin**


	10. Maybe it's best you leave me alone

**hey guys. short intro today. i hope you all enjoy this, and many thanks to all of you who reviewed/added me to story alert. **

**Disclaimer: **only the story line and a few of the minor characters

**Chapter 10: **Maybe it's best you leave me alone

* * *

A week later, Oliver was angry. Really angry. "Bell!" he roared, coming out of the bathroom at a run, still wet from his shower.

Katie looked up from the book she was reading on her couch. "Yes?" she asked and contained a laugh as he practically tripped over his couch.

"There was a bra on my towel!" Oliver announced like he had just told her that a dragon had just appeared in the shower.

"And? Move it if it bugs you so much," she said and went back to her book.

Oliver stared at her for a moment, incredulous. "I did!" he exclaimed finally.

Katie looked at him over the top of the page with an eyebrow raised. "So why are you angry?"

"Because my bathroom is turning into a girl! If you don't stop making it girly, I'll resort to all things super-manly: burping, farting, leaving the seat up, leaving rings on the coffee table, putting empty milk cartons back in the fridge, not wiping my feet on my way in." He ticked them off on his fingers as he listed them.

"Don't forget leaving the cap off the toothpaste so that it drips all down into the sink, and scratching while burping and farting," Katie reminded him.

"You think I wont!"

"Oliver, you didn't do any of those before I moved in -- well, except for the seat thing, but that's understandable. But yes, next time, I should remember to pick my underwear up."

"It's not just that though! There's moisturizers and perfumes and soaps and lotions and nail polish and make up and tweezers and –"

"The tweezers are yours, Ollie," Katie remarked, turning a page.

"And big long pieces of hair!" Oliver continued loudly, pacing back and forth. "The drains getting clogged with them! Stop shedding and stop being a girl!" he finished and stormed out of the living room. Katie shrugged.

&&&&&

"Oliver's having a case of PMS," Katie announced as she walked from Angelina's fireplace into her kitchen.

"Oh, that's nice. Could you hand me that bowl?" the gorgeous black woman asked, pointing with her elbow. Katie set the large blue bowl in front of Angelina who had flour coating her arms and front.

"What are you making?" Katie asked, making herself some tea and then settling in at the kitchen table.

"Bread via muggle!" Angelina announced proudly, picking up the dough she had been kneading and plopping it in the bowl. She placed a towel over the top, placed it in the sunshine coming in from the window and sat down across from Katie. "Why is Oliver PMS-ing?" she asked, floating a cup of tea across the kitchen.

"And I quote: 'stop shedding and stop being a girl!'"

Angelina made a face "Wow, that _is_ prickly-man-syndrome. What caused it this time?"

Katie shook her head. "Who knows," she said. "Last time, it was me accidentally dying an entire load of laundry pink, but this time, as far as I know, his whites are still white."

"Well, what did he start the rant with?"

"Something about there being a bra on his towel. I think. I can't be sure…I was reading."

"Oh! What book?" Angelina asked, getting sidetracked by the promise of a new book to devour.

"The one you leant me!" Katie exclaimed. "Focus on Oliver, please."

Angelina's face fell a little. "Fine! But I'm out of books, and Fred's collection is horrible!" she protested and took a sip of her tea. Katie glared at her over her mug and Angelina sighed, finally focusing herself on her friend's dilemma again. "Okay, well, there was a bra on his towel…wait, why was there a bra on his towel?"

Katie looked sheepish and said, "because I spilled honey on it this morning and I was letting it dry."

"Okay, but why wasn't in your dirty clothes with your shirt?"

"Because there wasn't a shirt with honey on it," Katie blushed. Angelina took the blush to mean something else and squealed.

"You're finally doing it with Oliver!" she crowed, ducking as Katie threw a spoon at her.

"We are not!" Katie reprimanded. "There wasn't a shirt because I was wearing one but then I spilled toothpaste on it, so I washed it and it was drying in the bathroom and Oliver wasn't awake yet, and the water started to boil so I went out to make the tea but then I spilled honey on my self and so then I changed my bra and put the old one on Oliver's towel rack to dry because my towel hangs on a hook and you can't fit a bra over the hook when the towel is on it!"

Angelina's face had fallen dramatically, and as Katie finished, taking a big breath at the end of her mini-rant, the ex-chaser took another sip of her tea. "First off, you need to work on your run-on sentences. Secondly, did you forget how to perform basic drying spells?"

"No! The spell reacts with my laundry soap though and the shirt or whatever ends up smelling like salt."

"Salt has a smell?" Fred asked, coming into the kitchen. He kissed Angelina on her cheek, peeked under the towel at the rising bread and joined the girls at the table.

"Yes," Katie said. "It smells salty."

"I don't believe you," he said, grabbing Angelina's cup of tea and ignoring her protests.

Katie rolled her eyes, handed her tea to Angelina to replace the one Fred had stolen, grabbed the salt-shaker and unscrewed the lid. "Here, smell this," she said, holding the shaker underneath his nose. He sniffed it carefully and sat back, impressed.

Angelina stared at her boyfriend and best friend. "You're two of the oddest people I know," she said, as Fred smelled the salt again, a grin spreading across his face.

Fred glanced at her, than grabbed Katie's wrist. "It's perfect!" he said excitedly, moving the shaker underneath Angelina's nose.

"I know what salt smells like, Fred!" she snapped and moved her head away.

Fred smelled the salt again, and then got up from the table. "I have to share this discovery with George! This is just what we've been looking for!" he announced and flooed to his brother's house.

Katie and Angelina sighed and began to laugh. "You picked a good one," Katie said at last, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"Speaking of which," Angelina began, but was interrupted by an owl pecking madly at the kitchen window. She got up and opened the window for the little bird. It landed on the sill and held out its leg. The two women gasped when they saw the tell-tale red envelope attached. The words _Katie Bell_ were written neatly across it. "For you, Kates," Angelina said, handing her friend the envelope and giving the bird a treat. It flew off hurriedly, and Katie tentatively opened the cherry colored wrapping.

"KATHERINE!" her sister's voice screamed out, much to the girls' surprise. "GET YOUR BUTT DOWN TO ST. MUNGO'S NOW! THE BABY'S COMING AND BUTTHEAD HERE JUST PASSED OUT!"

Katie and Angelina apparated to the hospital before the message had even finished.

&&&&&

Eight hours later, Katie was the proud aunt of little baby Charlotte, and the slightly embarrassed sister of Kelsey who, during labor, had loudly repeated every swear and curse she had heard in her twenty-nine years of existence. Katie sat in the waiting room of the seventh floor of St. Mungo's, waiting for one of the nurses to come out and tell her she could see her niece and sister. Angelina had gone home at around six, giving a quick apology to Katie who asked her friend to tell Oliver that she was missing practice. The clock struck nine just as a round nurse came wearily into the waiting room.

"Katie?" she asked, and Katie stood up. "Follow me," she commanded and turned back the way she had come. Katie dutifully followed the older woman into a quiet room where Kelsey lay quietly holding Charlotte, while her husband owled his parents.

"Thank you for coming, and tell Oliver I'm sorry for making you miss practice," Kelsey said as Katie entered.

"It's what sisters are for!" Katie exclaimed, looking over her sister's shoulder at the tiny baby. "She's got your eyes!" Katie cooed. "And you know, apart from looking like a quaffle she's pretty cute! Aren't you? Yes you are! And I'm your Auntie Katie and I'm going to teach you all the important things including how to hate your mother properly and--"

"My daughter does not look like a quaffle!" Kelsey interrupted, laughing.

"Well, she's the color of one!" Katie said, sitting next to her older sister on the bed.

"I'm not going to let you be her godmother," Kelsey threatened, grinning.

"That's okay. I'd probably drop her anyway."

"You're terrible," Kelsey chided.

"You're going to be an amazing mom," Katie said seriously.

Kelsey leaned against her younger sister since Charlotte occupied her arms. "I'll need help," she whispered and then yawned.

"You'll get it, don't worry. I'll let you sleep though. Owl me when you get out of here, okay?" Katie said, getting up.

Kelsey nodded, and then pressed the button to call the nurses to take Charlotte back to the nursery. "Thanks again, Kates," she said as Katie opened the door.

"Love you," Katie returned, and walked out of the darkened room.

&&&&&

When Katie had left that morning, calling out that she was heading to Angelina's for a bit, Oliver thought nothing of it. He had barricaded himself in his room so that he could avoid his flat-mate and the confrontation that he knew had to come sometime.

"Just tell her!" he told himself. He was crouched in a ball on his bed, his chin resting on his knees. "Just walk up to her when she gets home and say 'Katie, I'm sorry I snapped at you. I love you and this time, I'm not drunk!' Than she'll stare at you, say something sarcastic and then you kiss her. No. No that won't work. She's Katie, you stupid git, not some sappy normal female. She'd probably punch you in the stomach... Maybe write a letter! Yea! … No! Stupid, Oliver! Stop being stupid!"

His monologue continued in much the same fashion until it was time for Quidditch practice. He thought briefly about telling her at practice but when he showed up at the dressing rooms he saw Angelina, but no Katie.

"Kelsey's having her baby," his old chaser explained when questioned about Katie's absence. Oliver sighed but accepted the fact.

The keeper's anger did not begin to build until he returned home after practice. Katie still hadn't come home or sent him any sort of owl. That's when he noticed that something was different about his living room. He couldn't put his finger on it until he had gone to review plays for the game on Saturday and realized that Katie had dusted the television and washed the wall, successfully erasing two plays that he had worked hard on. The anger had risen in him much like a crock-pot begins to boil. By the time the clock read 9:30, Oliver had forgotten entirely about his plan to tell Katie of his love, instead focusing on all the annoying things she had done in the past week.

&&&&&

Katie entered the flat with a yawn. She flopped onto her couch and picked up her book from the coffee table, turning the lamp on as she did so. She failed to notice Oliver enter the living room and glare at her.

"Next time, you better be at practice, Bell," Oliver said quietly after a moment.

Katie set her book down with a sigh and sat up straighter. "My sister was having her baby, Oliver," she said.

"Angelina told me. Practice comes first, though," he said, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms.

Katie looked at him infuriated. "Last week you let Daniel take the day off because his wife was sick!"

"He gave me warning," Oliver explained, keeping his voice even.

"Babies don't give warning, Oliver!"

"Adults do though, and I expect you to behave like one."

Katie narrowed her eyes and clenched her teeth. "Oliver, I'm tired and I don't need this right now."

"You should have thought of that before you ditched practice."

"I didn't ditch practice! I had a family emergency!"

"You didn't have to be there, though."

"Yes I did! What crawled up your bum and died anyway?" she asked acidly.

"Excuse me?" he asked, straightening.

"You heard me. This morning you went off on how I was turning your bathroom into a girl – by the way, rooms can't have genders – and now you're on some power trip and calling me a child! So, I'm just wondering, what crawled up your bum and died?"

Oliver glared at her as if judging her and finally said, "I'm putting you on suspension. When you start acting like an adult, we'll reconsider if you can play this Saturday." He walked back into his room and shut the door. Katie remained on the couch long enough to blink and then was banging on his door.

"Oliver!" she yelled. "You can't suspend me! Who's going to play in my stead?"

"We'll just play a man down!" he yelled from the other side of the door. Katie could imagine him sitting on his bed with his arms crossed, pouting like the little child he was accusing her of.

"You mean you'll forfeit!"

"We'll just claim your hand is still hurting too much to play!"

"I make you hurt too much to play!" Katie threatened through the door. "Just come out here and tell me what your issue is!"

Oliver wrenched the door open and Katie had a sudden case of déjà vu. He stood glaring down at her and said, "You are. You leave bras on my towels and then flake out on practices. I'm sick of being your fake caretaker, Katie. I'm sick of you feeling like you can't do anything. You can, and you know it. You can fight your own battles, but you still act like you need me to do it for you. I've seen you kill ants with a magnifying glass for fun, but the moment there's a spider in the bathroom you're screaming like Snape himself is in there with you! You fly upside-down simply to amuse yourself, not because you need to and then get freaked out when you have to practice controlled falling! You dust off my TV and wash my walls, erasing plays that I worked really hard on, but then leave your tea mugs on the coffee table for days on end! You throw your laundry in with mine so that when I go through looking for a t-shirt, I have to sift through bras and underwear and stupid little socks that look like they should be for a eleven year old! You're a twenty-something-year-old woman! For Merlin's sake, get some sense!" He finished and retreated again into his room, slamming the door as he went.

Katie stared at the door for a second before walking calmly into the living room. She opened the trunk that sat in the corner behind her couch and lifted out a book. She flipped lovingly through the pages that had play after play written on them in her meticulous cursive and walked back to Oliver's door. After slipping the book through the crack at the bottom, she picked up her wand and walked out the front door.

* * *

**Don't worry, it gets worse in the next chapter. ;P**

** the song is from All-American Rejects "It ends tonight"****  
**

**_Read and Review please!_**


	11. Before You Tell Him Goodbye

**Hey guys! Sorry this took about a week longer to put up than I intended. Family issues came up and I was away from fast internet for awhile. Hope you all like it though. (Ps: i cried like, 4 times while reading Deathly Hallows. Anyone else?) **

**EDIT: realized i had forgotten to post like, 3 pages of the story...hopefully this makes way more sense now...sorry guys!  
**

**Disclaimer: only the storyline and a few minor characters**

**Chapter 12: Before You Tell Him Goodbye**

* * *

From inside his room Oliver heard her knock and saw the slim leather bound book slide under the door. He heard her retreat and the front door open and close and then peaked out his window. He watched her descend the stairs to the street and worried for a moment about her safety on the streets at ten o'clock at night until he saw her wand sticking out of her back pocket. He looked back at the book and his curiosity took over. Oliver walked across his room and picked the book up.

The cover was smooth maroon leather with _Plays_ printed in gold italics across the front. Callused hands traced the letters and then lifted the cover. _Quidditch through our ages_, Ollie, the inside cover read in Katie's handwriting. Below the inscription was a picture of the old Gryffindor team after a practice. The twins and Oliver, being the tallest ones on the team were in the back row. The keeper watched as his younger self batted at the hands of Fred and George who were attempting to make bunny ears behind his head and give him wet-willies. The girls and Harry, hanging on each other out of exhaustion made up the front row.

Oliver grinned and turned the page. He stopped. The page was headed with the words "Tricky Triangle" and outlined the play that he and the girls had worked on for about a week. It played on their strengths and weaknesses and had won them many games. His head swam as he flipped through the pages. Each page held step-by-step instructions, a diagram and the date it was first performed. Every page had a play, and every play was one that he had thought up. These were his plays. These were every single play that he had ever worked on. The second-to-last page's play was titled "Dust off the Television" and the last page was titled "No More Paper". He laughed and sank down on his bed.

"I don't believe her," he finally breathed. Oliver rubbed his face in his hands and glanced at the clock. Almost an hour had passed while he stood studying the playbook. With a smile on his face, and his plan to tell Katie that he loved her back in his mind, Oliver opened the door of his room. He heard thunder crack up ahead and expected to see Katie wrapped in a blanket staring nervously at the fire like she normally did during storms. He saw instead a dark living room and an empty couch. Katie hadn't come home, he realized.

"Way to go, Oliver!" he said to himself as he grabbed his wand off his bedside table and stormed out the door. "She could be anywhere by now, stupid. Think." The rain was coming down in earnest and Oliver hoped Katie had found cover. "Which way did she start out? No, wait. That doesn't mean anything: she likes to wander. Okay, than where would she go? Donkey! Dancing Donkey. Yea, probably walked down to the pub to have a nice drink and get out of the rain."

She had, but she had left before the storm set in.

"Okay, one place down," Oliver said as he left the Dancing Donkey a short while later. "Where else would she go? Where would I go if I were a woman scorned? Woman scorned? Where did that come from? Shut up, Oliver! Think! Where – Angie's!"

She wasn't there either, but Oliver did gain two more helpers as both Angelina and Fred insisted on helping to look for her.

"What about Alicia's?" Angelina asked.

"I'll check George's!" Fred said. "Don't worry, Ange, she'll turn up. She's a tough girl." Angelina nodded, but it was apparent that she didn't trust her boyfriend very much. The storm was getting worse and they all knew that thunder was one of the few things that made Katie really nervous.

"Check Alicia's than Amelia's. I'll ask Daniel, Matt and Leo if they've seen her. If you find her, send up green sparks and send 'em high." Oliver apparated to first Daniel's flat, than Matt's and finally Leo's. Half an hour later, eleven witches and wizards were roaming the city of London searching for the brunette chaser without attracting too much attention from the muggle police for wandering the streets at near midnight in the middle of a thunderstorm.

Oliver was becoming more and more frantic. He racked his brains for everywhere that Katie could have gone. In his mind, he ticked off the places that he had already checked, brushing the rainwater out of his eyes as he stood in front of the pub leading from the muggle world to Diagon Alley. Stadium, dressing rooms, team's homes, Donkey, Diagon Alley. Where else? As he stood quietly on the street corner, wishing that Katie wasn't so stupid for going out by herself at night, a cat appeared on a stoop nearby. It meowed once and then spoke.

"Oliver, sweetie," his mother's voice came from the woman sitting where the cat had been on the dirty stoop. She was a petite woman with short straight white hair and a tendency to mother anyone who got within twenty feet of her. Her voice was as sweet as sugar, tinged with a Scottish accent softer than that of Oliver's. She waved her wand and cast a spell to keep the rain off of both of them. Thunder boomed ominously in the background again.

Oliver turned around quickly and asked, "Mum! What are you doing here?"

"Katie showed up at home. Don't worry, she's all right. Your dad gave her some tea and her nerves calmed right down."

"You charmed the tea, didn't you? She's going to be angry at you if she finds out. She hates charmed food."

"She seems a little preoccupied with being angry at you. What did you do to her, and why are you shooting green sparks out of your wand? Do you want the muggles to know you're here?" She patted the step next to her and crossed her legs at the ankles.

"No, Mum, but I want the rest to know that she's been found," Oliver said, ignoring her invitation to sit, as ten people appeared around him. They hurried under the spell, wringing out hair and robes and performing drying spells.

"Oh my! The whole team's shown up!" Ms. Wood said excitedly.

"That's not Katie! That's your mum, Ollie!" Daniel exclaimed, holding his wife's hand.

"Oh, thank you, Danny. I was confused!" Ms. Wood said, obviously used to dealing with the Wasps. "Katie has shown up at my home and in between her bursts of anger at our dear Genghis here – yes, Ollie, I know your nickname. Not a very good one though, you might want to work on that. Maybe go for something sweeter. Like a St. Something—"

"Mum!"

"Oh right! Well, she decided that people might be worried about her whereabouts, especially seeing as how worried she gets during thunderstorms. This is a big one isn't it?I bet she didn't know that so many would be though. Eleven of you are there?"

"But…wait… why would Katie go to your house, Ms. Wood? Erm, no offense," Angelina asked.

"Angie! Is that you hiding back there behind – Fred and George! And Alicia! How are you all? You know, you should all visit more. Oliver, why haven't they been visiting more? They were such a lovely group of people to have around the holidays, and I always–"

"Mum!" Oliver said, moving his head into her line of vision.

"Oh, right!" she said, smoothing her skirt. "Well, when Katie was in school, she came to me a lot when she was angry at Oliver. She didn't tell you because I suspect that even though she was angry at him, she would have felt bad if Oliver knew it was his own mum who gave her the charmed bra idea." Ms. Wood giggled to herself, and Oliver flushed red. "Now then, Katie is safe and sound and you all look exhausted. Especially you, Justin. Has Oliver been working you too hard? You can tell me if he has. I know some great tricks for making him relax."

"He's fine, mum!" Oliver quipped before Justin had a chance to open his mouth.

"I wasn't asking you, Oliver. I was asking Justin," Ms. Wood stated.

"Like the captain said, I'm fine. Amelia and I have just been redecorating and it's taking a lot out of us. I think we'll be heading home, if Katie's all right, then. Tell Puppy that if she goes wandering again, we're putting a leash on her." He grinned, and disapparated with Amelia.

The rest followed shortly behind, leaving Oliver and his mother in the street with rain pouring down around them and thunder booming above their heads.

"Now than, Oliver," Ms. Wood said, her voice much more stern than before. "Either you make that sweet little Katie happy, or I will make you miserable. She loves you, you big stupid git, and you obviously love her if you're stressing out so much because she's wandered off."

"I don't love her, Mum. She's just one of my really close friends!" Oliver protested, but his mother ignored him and apparated to her home.

&&&&&

"Glad to see you found the lug, Midge," Oliver's father said pleasantly, getting up from the table as the other two members of his family landed in the kitchen. He handed them towels and used his wand to dry the water they were spreading on the floor.

"It's not like it was that hard!" she said, kissing her husband on the cheek. "I'll just make sure that Ollie starts talking to Katie and then I'll be up to bed."

Mr. Wood smiled, and left the kitchen. His footsteps up the stairs in the front hall could be heard as Midge Wood roughly grabbed her son by the shoulders – despite the eight-inch difference in their height – and marched him down the hall to the guest room. She opened the door and smiled at Katie, who looked up surprised as they entered.

"I was just admiring this vase," she said quickly, setting it down on the shelves between a myriad of sculptures and vases.

"Oh, that's alright, dear. I've always hated that vase, but you know mothers-in-law. Actually, the only things I like in this room are the painting and the lamp," Midge said with a wink. Katie smiled understandingly, picking up the blue and red vase again. Ms. Wood closed the door on her son and Katie and waited until she heard the vase smash against it. She nodded matter-of-fact, dusted her hands together and followed her husband up the well-worn stairs, knowing that the silencing spell on the parameters of the room would mute any other crashes and yelling.

"She was having a baby, idiot!" the chaser yelled, hurling the ugly little vase.

"Oi!" Oliver yelled as shards of pottery ricocheted past his head. One hit him in the neck and he reached a hand up to feel a small about of blood.

"I'm sorry," Katie said sarcastically. "Did I hurt you?"

"Nothing I can't handle," Oliver said, dabbing the blood.

"Well, then," Katie said as she picked up a tacky figurine, "I guess I'll just have to aim better."

Oliver nodded, "You're aim always is a bit off," he quipped.

She launched the figurine at his head with a growl. He ducked and Katie smirked. "Gee, Ollie, I think I know why we lose so many games," she said, devilishly innocent. "You see, the job of the keeper is to get in the way of things flying at him, not out of the way."

"There's only so much I can do when my chasers never touch the quaffle!"

"You're a prick, you know that?"

"And you're crazy!" Oliver said, gesturing at the broken shards around him.

"Because of you!"

"Oh, Katie," Oliver scoffed. "You're kind of crazy isn't my fault." His anger at her annoying tendencies had returned after the vase had hit him in the neck.

"_Want to bet?_" Katie growled, reaching for something else to throw at him from the shelf behind her.

"You threw a vase at me! Who does that?"

"People who have been driven crazy by spending too much time around you!" Katie yelled and threw another porcelain figurine at his head. He ducked and it shattered on the wall above his head. She launched another figure right after, and smiled when he let out a shout of pain. He wiped the cut that had appeared on his cheek and stared at his hand.

"Are you honestly this angry?" he asked.

"Yes, Oliver, I am honestly this angry!" she said and threw a clay sculpture at him.

"Oi! I made this!" Oliver protested, catching the sculpture of a pig.

"No wonder it's so ugly!" Katie sneered and grabbed at a small puke-yellow vase.

"You aren't seriously going to throw all of that crap on those shelves at me, are you?" Oliver asked, straightening out of the fighting stance he hadn't even realized he'd adopted.

"_Watch me," _Katie said darkly. She threw the vase across the room and hit Oliver in the shoulder.

"Katherine!" he protested, grabbing his shoulder with the hand not holding the pig.

"This is what happens when we get mad at people for no apparent reason, Oliver!" she snarled, launching yet another item off the shelves.

"I'm sorry!" Oliver cried, holding up both hands. "I love you if that helps!"

Katie's hand froze with a small apple carved out of stone in it and narrowed her eyes. "It doesn't!" she spat. "Drop the pig."

Oliver rolled his eyes. "No, Katie I'm serious!"

"Troll dung!" she said. "Now, drop the pig or the apple flies."

"Is that really necessary?"

She threw the apple at his stomach in answer and the pig crashed to the floor as he buckled over.

"Good. Now that you know how I felt earlier, I'm going to explain some things to you. No, Oliver, don't speak. Sit." The burly keeper sat quickly on the bed, rubbing where the apple had hit his stomach and attempting to catch his breath. "Here's what's up. The bra was on your towel because I had spilled honey on it and washed it. I didn't perform a drying spell on it because when I do that, the clothes end up smelling like salt, and I'm sorry if I forgot to move it after it had dried. People forget things, Oliver. You have to learn to accept people in all their imperfections. To love people for who they are, not in spite of it.

"To address the products in the bathroom," she continued, "I'm sorry. There's not much room and I figured it was okay to leave all that stuff out considering you've been using my face wash and shave gel anyway. Oh, yes, Oliver. I know that you've been doing that. They're fragrant for a reason." Oliver swallowed and dabbed the blood from his neck and cheek on his shirt. He hadn't seen her this angry with him since he charmed her lotion to stain her purple in third year.

"The fighting my own battles thing?" she said, stalking around the bed to stand in front of him. Her voice had been hard, but here it changed. " You're right. I like fighting my own battles, but I also like having you around. I'm capable of fighting by myself, but I prefer to have company, and you're the best company I've ever had. What you said really hurt, and announcing 'I love you' doesn't fix that. "

"I'm sorry. None of it was true. I mean, the love part was but –"

"Shut it, Oliver. I don't care if you love me or not. All the rest of it has to be how you really feel. You wouldn't have said it if some part of you didn't believe it. I don't know. Maybe this whole living together thing just doesn't work with us. Maybe I should move out." She sat next to him and sighed.

"No," he said immediately. "I don't want you to move out."

"I think it's the best thing right now. I can't go back to that flat with you tonight."

"So stay here tonight and come back tomorrow!" Oliver exclaimed.

Katie shook her head. "No Oliver. My mum has an extra room and she'll let me stay there for a few days while I look for an apartment. I'll uhm…pick up my stuff tomorrow."

"Katie!"

"Oliver, it was a good temporary place, but come on. Did you really think that it was working? I can't keep sleeping in the living room."

"So I'll sleep in the living room and you can have my room!"

Katie bit her lip. "That still doesn't change the fact that deep down you think I'm immature and –"

"Katherine Bell," Oliver interrupted. He had almost made her go the first time, this time he wasn't going to let her.

"Could you stop, please?"

"No. No I can't. Yes, what I said was hurtful. I was a prick. After I finished looking at that amazing book," he smiled as she blushed modestly and continued, "and I realized you hadn't come back, I was really worried. I knew you had taken your wand, but still. The storm was getting worse and I know you don't like them and … you're my best friend and if anything happened to you, I wouldn't forgive myself. You're a pain in the butt and stubborn as a mule, and you have a heck of a good arm, but I wouldn't have anyone else living with me. No one else would have taken the time to copy down a play drawn in dust on the television before cleaning it off. You're the only one who calls me on my crap besides my mother, and even if I resent you for it sometimes, she adores you because of that."

"Your mother adores everyone, Ollie," Katie said, smiling in spite of her anger.

"True, but she likes you the best. Look, Katie, I really am sorry. I don't know what got into me this morning, or…this evening. Everything I said is nullified. I was an idiot and a jerk and a prat and a pig and a butthead and if you want this in writing, I will not only do that, but I will carve it in stone if it will make you forgive me."

"Why though? Why forgive you? You're just going to hurt me again in a few weeks! I can't keep this up! I'll be by to pick up my stuff tomorrow, and then I'll be out of your hair." She said this quietly, looking at her lap.

He stared at her for a moment. "Is that what you really want?" he asked, hurt.

She nodded, still avoiding his gaze. "Fine," he said, standing. "Fine. I'll just…go back and pack your things so that you don't have to spend any more time than is absolutely necessary there tomorrow," and with a loud crack, he was gone.

Katie broke down, crying for about ten minutes before finally drying her eyes and choosing to floo to her family home.

The green flames let her out into the familiarly homey living room. The room was dark, but light from the kitchen spilled onto the couch, making the burgundy fabric look warm, rich and inviting. Katie wound her way around the coffee table and peered into the kitchen where she saw her mother sitting at the island in the center digging the last remnants of a milkshake out of the bottom of the glass. She dropped the spoon, picked up her wand and spun towards the door as Katie's foot caused a floorboard to creak.

"Mum!" she whispered. "It's me! It's Katie!" she walked into the kitchen and joined her mother at the island.

Ms. Lydia Bell looked confusedly at her youngest, but picked up her spoon again. "What's wrong, dear?" she asked, going back to scraping the glass. Her brownish-gray hair was pulled back into a messy bun, and she was wearing comfortable navy blue sweats. The fact that she was plopped in the center of the kitchen in the middle of the night was something that Katie was not unused to. Her mother was an ex-auror and the tradition of midnight milkshakes had stemmed from her need for comfort food after returning home from a day of work.

"Can I stay here for a few days?" Katie asked, swinging her leg around the back of a stool and plopping down on it.

"No," Lydia said frankly. Katie and Kelsey had similar personalities to their mother, who in her day had made men much stronger and bigger than her cower, simply with words. The Bell women rarely danced around a subject, and never with each other.

Katie looked shocked. "But Mum!" she protested. "I'm your daughter!"

"And in love with Oliver and you need to get over this stupid little fight that you're having and get married already so that I can win the betting pool that we all have set up." As she talked, she walked to the freezer and got more ice cream out.

"You're betting on me?" Katie exclaimed loudly. "Are you allowed to bet on your daughter's love life?"

"Shh, not so loud! You'll wake your father up and he has an extremely early meeting at the ministry tomorrow! I don't see why I shouldn't be able to bet on your love life: it's there – sort of. The betting was Alicia's idea, and before you get angry at her, she said it as a joke; your father was the one who actually set up the pool." She retrieved another spoon from the drawer and sat back down in front of her daughter. "You can stay here one night, but then tomorrow you will walk back into that apartment, grab Oliver's adorable Scottish face and kiss him like he's never been kissed before. If you're too chicken to do it, I will do it for you, is that clear?"

"_Mum_, you're married!" Katie squawked.

"Katie, calm down, you're resembling a chicken with all this squawking. And if you want to save my marriage you will do what I know is good for you," Lydia remarked, spooning a mouthful of ice cream into her mouth.

"You're manipulative," Katie muttered, digging her spoon into the tub of ice cream.

"So are you, and you learned it from me!" she punctuated her sentence with her spoon.

"Yea, but I don't threaten my daughter with my marriage!"

"That's because you don't have a daughter or a marriage!" Lydia said matter of fact.

"Mum! I'm not one of your enemies, stop ripping me apart!"

"I'm not ripping you apart, I'm merely forcefully putting into your head the idea that you and Oliver would make a very good couple and that it should happen sooner rather than later to insure that I get the coins instead of Oliver's father, who's next in line, by the way."

Katie glowered at her mother much the same way she did when she was five and Kelsey had just stole her dolly. Lydia raised her eyebrow sardonically and pointed her spoon at Katie. As she swallowed another mouthful, she said, "Stop looking at me like that. You know I'm right. Oliver's a pain in the bum, but he does love you."

"How can you tell though?" Katie asked, licking her spoon.

"When you walk into the room, he gets this teeny tiny smile on his face and if he's talking he'll pause for half a second to watch you. When you were falling after your hand got hurt, he looked like he was going to throw up, and not in the 'oh no, my chaser is hurt' but in the 'oh crap, that's my Katie.' So what if he fights with you and pushes your buttons? Make-ups are the best part of a relationship," Lydia said with a wink.

"Ew! _Mum_!"

"It's true," Ms. Bell said with a shrug.

Katie rolled her eyes. "Yes, but you're my mother! You're not supposed to talk about sex with your daughter!"

"Yes you are."

"No, no you're not!"

"Sweetie, it's called the sex talk," Lydia Bell said gently and smugly.

"_I mean after that!_" Katie practically yelled. A quick sound reduction spell performed by Ms. Bell caused Mr. Bell's sleep to not be disturbed though. "And I'm not having sex with Oliver, ever! I'm not! I'm moving out of that prat's house and if you won't let me live here, I'll just be forced to get my own apartment, except on my salary it will be an ultimate dive and I'll probably end up dying of cockroaches and little buggies eating me alive in my sleep! And my death will be on your shoulders, Mother! Just imagine it, the _Daily Prophet_'s headline: Mother Kills Daughter By Not Letting Her Live At Home!" She ate a spoonful of ice cream victoriously with a 'humph' sound.

Lydia snorted and grabbed the carton of ice cream away from Katie as she reached out with her spoon. "You need to work on your headlines, Kates," she remarked. Katie's mouth fell open and then closed in a pout. The two Bell women stared across the island at each other, the younger attempting to stretch across the tall island to get at the ice cream, and the older holding above both of their heads. "One night, and then home," Lydia instructed.

"Two nights," Katie bargained.

"Katherine."

"You don't understand what it's like!"

"I don't have to. You're living your dream, Katie! Do you remember when you were little and I would ask you and Kelsey what you wanted for Christmas, and every Christmas, what would you say?" her mother's gentler side was beginning to show, despite the ice cream still being held above her head.

"Ice cream," Katie grunted.

"Wrong. C'mon, if say it, you'll feel better."

"Give me the ice cream, and I'll feel better." Lydia stared at her daughter until Katie finally sagged and grumbled, "I always said I wanted to be a professional chaser."

"That's a good girl," Ms. Bell said, and set the ice cream down in front of Katie, who made a small noise of happiness. "Now, as I was saying, you're living your dream and you have one of the leading keepers in the league wandering the streets of London in a thunderstorm for you, but what do you do? You throw a vase at his head!"

Katie paused with her spoon half way to her mouth. "How did…?"

"Ollie's Mum owled me while you two were fighting," Lydia said. "You have had that boy wrapped around your little finger since you were a scrawny first year still wearing pigtails. And trust me, dear, that was not a good look for you. Ever since you walked onto that field hauling that gigantic broom, he's been sweet on you."

"How did you know my broom was too big for me?"

"I paid Kelsey twenty galleons to keep an eye on you your first year."

Katie looked shocked for a second and then rolled here eyes. She should have known that her auror mother wouldn't have let her go off to school without someone keeping an eye on her. "So who was keeping an eye on Kelsey her first year?" she asked finally.

"No one. "

"Are you serious?"

Ms. Bell nodded and Katie sighed. "I _hate _being the youngest," she grumbled.

"She never made the bigger kids angry by playing tricks on them." At Katie's cheeky grin she smiled, knowing that her daughter's troublemaker side had come from her. "Go make sure his cuts and bruises are healing and tell him that you'll make him the happiest man in the world as long as he promises to not act like a prick."

"Are you sure that's possible for Oliver?" Katie asked.

"I think it would be if he knew you loved him back," Lydia remarked quietly. She laughed as Katie pouted yet again. This time though, it was a different kind of pout. It was a pout that showed Katie knew her mother had won. She wasn't sure how though, but she knew that she would spend one night in the guest room and then try talking with Oliver in the morning.

"Thanks, Mum," she said, and stood.

"Anytime, Kates. That's what I'm here for. Give me a hug and I'll have bacon and eggs for you in the morning, okay?" She held out her arms, and when her youngest daughter was safely enveloped in her arms, she whispered, "I love you, Katie. You're an amazing girl, and you deserve the best man possible." She felt Katie nod, and pulled away. "Oliver's that man. You two just have to learn how to give a little. Stop sweating the small things and start appreciating the people who wander around in storms for you. You're a good girl, Katie. I know you'll make the right decision. I love you. Goodnight." She kissed Katie on the forehead, gave her another quick squeeze and walked out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

Katie whispered, "Goodnight, Mum," and walked out the other doorway in the kitchen and down the hall to the guest room.

&&&&&

When Katie woke the next morning, she could tell by the sun shining through the window that her father had already left for the ministry. She pushed the covers off and padded towards the kitchen. She started to hear the sounds of bacon frying and she paused in the hallway to listen to Lydia talking quietly to the cat. She grinned, reminded of the nonsense her mother used to talk to her in the mornings before school. Lydia walked by the hallway on her way back to the stove and paused in the doorway.

"Good morning, sleepy," she said.

"Hi. Do you um, need any help with breakfast?" Katie asked, walking the rest of the way down the hall and sitting at the island again. She leaned down to pet Sawyer, the sleek gray tabby cat stretching up the leg of her stool, begging her for food.

"He's been fed, no matter what he tells you," Katie's mother remarked, scooping the bacon out of the pan. She handed Katie a plate and a glass of fresh orange juice. "Did you sleep well?" she asked, sitting down across from her daughter, who had already begun to eat.

Katie nodded and swallowed. "Mum," she began. "Erm, when did you know you loved Dad?"

Lydia Bell smiled, remembering back to a spring day many years before. "I was a fifth year, your father a sixth, and I had just gotten out of O.W.L.s. I entered the common room, and there was your father, playing wizards chess with your Uncle Edwin."

"He was playing chess with your younger brother and you knew you loved him?" Katie asked, skeptic. Her mother grinned again and shook her head.

"Nope. He was letting Edwin _win_ and I knew I loved him. It's not often that you see sixth years letting first years beat them at their favorite game – especially in the middle of the Ravenclaw common room. Doubly especially when it's the little brother of the girl who had just recently dyed your hair pink."

Katie choked on her orange juice. "You dyed Dad's hair pink?"

Lydia shrugged. "He deserved it," she explained simply. Katie raised an eyebrow in response. "He took the last piece of cheesecake at dinner."

Katie laughed. "You always were irrational when it came to deserts."

"I love you too, Kates," her mother said with a soft smile. "When did you know that you loved Oliver?"

Katie froze. "I – I never said that I –"

"A mother can tell, Katie. Even a mother who's as tough as I am. We're really good at telling when our children are in love. When did you know?"

"I …I think it was when I found out he begged Dumbledore to let him watch the last Gryffindor game I played in and then came up to me afterwards and said 'Great job, Kates, but next time remember to extend your arm fully on your left handed throws. You looked a bit weak,'" she said slowly, as if she had just realized it.

Lydia smiled maternally and reached across the table to grasp Katie's hand. "Go get him, Katie," she said.

Katie looked up at her mother and bit her lip. "What if he won't accept my apology?" she asked quietly.

"Than you grab his face and snog him for all he's worth, and he's worth quite a lot from what I can tell. And if worse comes to worst, just send him on over to me, and I'll talk some sense into him."

Katie laughed and stood up. She walked around the table and whispered, "Thanks, Mum, for everything," giving her mother a hug in the process.

Lydia patted Katie's arm and kissed her forehead. "You're welcome. Now, get out of my house," she said jokingly. Katie nodded and apparated on the spot.

* * *

**Hope you liked it. Read and review please -- even if it's bad. Title is from "Listen To Your Heart" by DHT**


	12. I Should Tell You

**Hey guys...before I forget: THANK YOU to everyone who read this and who commented and put me as favorite/alert for something. you guys literally made my day half the time. Also, i realized that justin's name became john for a chapter or two...oops. Also also, i fixed chapter 11 so that it makes more sense now -- realized i forgot like, 3 pages...nother oops. erm, anything else that you guys notice, just chalk it up to "oops". But yes, the long awaited (some longer waited than for others) end chapter...enjoy. **

**Disclaimer: only the story line**

**Chapter 12: I Should Tell You **

Katie appeared in the kitchen of the small flat and paused. She listened to the silence for a moment, knowing that it was about to either be shattered horribly, or kept icily in tact. "C'mon Katie," she muttered to herself, "buck up. It's now or never. Throw big or go home. Keep alert and keep your eyes on the prize." She stopped suddenly, realizing she had said that last sentence in a remarkably good imitation of Oliver's Scottish accent. She rubbed her face, took a deep breath, and walked to Oliver's bedroom door.

She knocked once, and heard the deep voice growl from the other side "Come in." She opened the door a crack and looked in on Oliver at his desk, carefully copying another play into the book she had made. Katie smiled a little just as he looked up. "I didn't expect you here so early," he remarked quietly, glancing at the clock by his bed. It's glowing display showed it was only 8:27.

"Yea, my uhm…my mum gets up early. She thinks getting up after five is sleeping in," Katie said quietly.

Oliver nodded and turned back to the play book. Katie stood in the doorway, watching Oliver's quill scratching away. The heavy curtains were still drawn against the morning light and the only light in the room came from a small lamp sitting on the desk. Ten minutes passed in which neither moved drastically, and then Oliver looked up again. "Practice starts in twenty minutes. If you're going, you can use the bathroom to change. I showered last night," he said, standing and walking to his dresser. He stripped off the same t-shirt he had been wearing last night and Katie saw a slightly swollen fist sized bruise on the left side of his otherwise flat stomach.

"Did I do that?" she asked quietly.

He glanced down at the mark and then back to her. "Yes," he said tersely, tossing his shirt into the hamper.

Katie exhaled and slumped against the door-frame. "I'm sorry, Ollie," she whispered.

"Better get changed, Bell. If you're coming with me, we're leaving soon." He grabbed another shirt out of the dresser and yanked it over his head. He pulled sweats out of another drawer and stared at Katie. She remained motionless, matching his stare with a pleading look. "I only let people I'm on good terms with see me without pants, Bell." She blushed and spun around. He pushed passed her a minute later and walked into the kitchen. Katie followed him, still looking miserable.

Oliver went about preparing a cup of tea for himself, at the last minute getting another thermos down from the cupboard. "If you keep standing there, you'll make us both late, Bell," he warned, spooning sugar into the cups.

"Can you call me Katie first?" Katie asked, her voice quavering. "You only call me Bell when you're really angry with me."

He shrugged as the kettle began to scream.

"Oliver, please," she begged.

"Fine, B—Katie. Go get changed. We'll talk about all of this after practice." He turned the heat off and poured the water into the waiting thermoses.

"Thank you," she whispered and he heard her walk to her trunk in the living room.

She padded towards the bathroom and when Oliver heard the door click shut, he sagged against the counter, gasping in pain. He seriously suspected that the apple had broken one of his ribs, but didn't know enough about healing magic to fix it himself. Despite being cranky at the fact that she had finally managed to cause him serious injury -- somehow around the hours of three or four in the morning he had managed to forgive her for actually throwing the objects -- he didn't want her to worry about something that the team healer could easily fix. He heard the bathroom door open and straightened up again, wincing as he did so. Katie entered the kitchen again and took her thermos from Oliver's outstretched hand.

"Your pads and gloves are over there," he said, indicating the corner of the kitchen where she normally dumped her duffel bag. She picked it up, and handed his to him. He swung it around his shoulders habitually, but then doubled over, gasping as the strap settled against his stomach.

"Oliver?" Katie asked worriedly, putting her hand on his back and bending over to look at his face.

"Fine. I'm fine, Bell. We have…let's go..." he gasped, straightening up fragilely. Katie still looked worried though, and stood stationary when Oliver began to walk towards the fireplace to floo. He turned in the doorway when he didn't hear her following.

"That wasn't fine. What's wrong?" she asked.

He shook his head, but didn't say anything, afraid that his voice would betray him. Katie's nostrils flared and she set her chin more firmly, crossing her arms. "Katie, I'm fine," Oliver assured her, forcing his voice to be stronger than he actually felt.

"Troll dung, Oliver," Katie said simply.

"We have practice, Bell. Let's go," he said, walking to the living room where he picked up a handful of floo powder.

"Oliver!" Katie said, following him. "Can you not lie to me?"

Oliver did not respond, but instead flooed to the Quidditch field. Katie fumed, and then followed angrily behind him.

&&&&&

"No, guys!" Amelia screeched, "I honestly thought that they said right!"

Matt, Leo, Daniel and Justin quieted their laughing for a moment before Leo caught Justin's eye and they dissolved into laughter again. The team was in the process of strapping pads on underneath robes. They were waiting for Oliver to arrive before practice started, and somehow, a story that Amelia had rather been forgotten had resurfaced, courtesy of Daniel's memory.

"I'm sorry, Meels," Matt choked out. "It's just, the thought of _you_ flying into the wall because someone said 'left' and you went right…" he dissolved into another fit of giggles.

"Justin!" Amelia protested as the chaser pretended to fly into a wall. "You're not supposed to laugh at your fiancé!"

"I'm sorry, I really am, sweetie," he said, coming over to her and giving her a hug. She tried to pry herself away from him, but he hugged her tighter. "I'm not laughing _at_ you, I'm laughing with them!" He smiled down at her as she pouted.

"You are too laughing at me," she said.

"Give it up, Justin. Amelia, we are most certainly laughing at you. It's just…" Leo said, and then trailed off when his fellow beater turned her glare to him.

"I was twelve years old!" Amelia basically shouted as first Oliver stormed out of the fireplace and then Katie. Oliver's face held a look that greatly resembled a mother being harassed by her children; Katie's meanwhile was that of pure stubbornness. The teammates froze, knowing that whatever the flatmates were angry about now was ten times more interesting than any embarrassing Amelia stories.

"You can't just floo away from me like that! I know how to follow you!" Katie yelled, throwing her stuff down in front of her locker and crossing her arms. Oliver ignored her and opened his locker.

"We are not having this conversation right now, okay, Bell? Get your pads and robes on," he said quietly, easing the bag off his shoulder and down to the bench.

"Not until you tell me why you're not fine!"

Oliver grabbed his pads out of his bag and began to strap them onto his forearms and legs. "But I am fine," he insisted.

"No, you're not!"

Oliver gingerly straightened and cocked his head. "Funny," he quipped. "I didn't know that you could feel my emotions and physical pain..."

"I can't, but --"

"So then why do you keep insisting that I'm not fine?"

"Because you're most obviously not!" Katie said, her voice rising a little with intensity.

"If I tell you I'm fine, then I'm fine!"Oliver calmly bent to his shin pads again. "Pads, Katherine," he reminded.

"But fine is code for 'I'm actually doing terrible!'" Katie insisted, unzipping her duffel and taking out her arms guards. She ignored Matt's whispered "it is?" to Amelia, who responded by shushing him.

"Okay, well then, how's this? I'm doing so super well that in fact, I feel like I'm twelve again!" He smirked at her and Katie stamped her foot.

"You big fat liar!" she practically shouted.

A small laugh escaped Oliver's lips. "Seems I've gotten you mad enough to resort to juvenile sayings," he remarked, standing and grabbing his practice robe out of the locker.

"I'll resort to other juvenile things if you don't tell me what's wrong!" Katie threatened, bringing her wand out.

Oliver raised an eyebrow, and chuckled internally when he sensed the rest of the team tense with anticipation. "If you spell me, then it'll just be overkill, Katie." She grumbled something and put her wand away.

"Then tell me what's wrong with you!" she said louder and finished strapping on her protective pads.

"Why do you want to know so badly?"

"Because! I don't like to see –" Katie stopped herself quickly and blushed. "I don't like to see my teammates injured," she finished lamely a moment later.

"Hmm," Oliver mused, sliding the heavy robe over his head. "Funny. Seems to me that you were the one who injured me. Pretty hypocritical, don't you think?"

"I know I gave you the bruise, but it shouldn't have made you almost pass out when something touched it! Bruises don't do that! You're seriously hurt and you won't tell me what's wrong, which with my imagination is making me think the worst, and I couldn't live with myself if you died because I threw a paperweight at your stomach!" Katie said in a rush, and yanked her robe down around her shoulders.

A murmur of surprise went around the room and Oliver turned to the team. "I think it would be best if you all went out and warmed up. We're already a few minutes late, and we have a very important game this weekend. Daniel, you will be in charge until I get back from the healer. Katie, go with the team."

"No."

"Katherine Bell, don't do this. Go warm up and I will be out there soon," Oliver said stonily. "Now." The team sprung to attention and grabbed their brooms. They filed out of the locker room, Katie looked balefully behind her at Oliver. Slamming the door to the field behind them, Oliver went in search of the person who could fix his broken rib.

Katie sulked onto the field behind the rest of the team and caught the quaffle that Daniel drop passed to her as they ascended.

"So, Puppy," he said as she flew within hearing range. "What happened last night that made you throw a paper weight at Genghis?"

"Nothing," she said, tossing the funny shaped ball to Justin.

"Methinks the puppy has learned to lie," Leo sing-songed from where he and Amelia were beginning to bat a bludger back and forth between the two of them a few yards above the three chasers.

"Mmm, I dunno," Matt added, flying vertically through the circle of chasers and dodging the bludger as he crossed its flight path. "_Me_thinks she just doesn't want to tell us what happened because _she_-thinks it's embarrassing!"

"_I _thinks you should all just mind your own business and let me alone!" Katie said crossly.

The quaffle flew from Justin to Daniel, landing in his hands with a smack just as he said, "We just want to know why Genghis Wood made you so angry that he deserved a paper weight to the tummy."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Katie changed tactics, and rolling left on her broom to catch the wide throw. "Aim next time, Daniel!"

"Now Puppy is lying outright!" Matt added from where he floated and stretched. "Although, I do have to agree with her on the aiming bit, Dan."

"I concur...on uhm, both bits," Leo said, then added "Heads!" as he accidentally knocked a bludger towards earth instead of towards Amelia.

Amelia groaned but after some quick maneuvers had the dangerous black ball back safely contained in her sky-high tennis match with Leo. The three chasers below them moved as a triangle out from underneath the overzealous beater.

"Concentrate guys!" Daniel reminded them as Katie fumbled a catch from Justin.

She responded by chucking the quaffle at his head, and was slightly disappointed when he caught it. Katie stuck her tongue out when he smirked at her, and Justin snorted. "Knew there was another reason that we called her Puppy," he joked and laughed again when Katie glared at him.

"No, but honestly, Kates. What happened?" Amelia said with a grunt, knocking the bludger back the way it had come.

"_Nothing happened!"_ Katie said angrily.

"You can tell me! I'm one of your best friends!" Amelia insisted, grinning.

"Yes, but we're surrounded by boys and I don't want to talk about this right now. I'm already feeling bad enough as it is and if I tell all of you then you'll just make me feel worse."

"I'm guessing," Justin mused, catching and then throwing the quaffle to Katie, "That Oliver said something Oliver-ish and it put you over the line and so you resorted to throwing inanimate objects at him, and not just the paperweight."

"Yea! Did you notice the cuts on his neck and cheek? She had to have been throwing other things as well, since when we left him last night, he was fine. Drenched and stressed, but otherwise fine," Matt added.

Katie said nothing, but when her teammates turned to look at her, her dark expression told them they were right.

"And now," Leo said with a whack of his bat, "you're feeling guilty about throwing all of those things because you think that you've seriously hurt the only man who ever cared enough about you to follow you into a thunderstorm."

"But you feel like you can't say sorry to him because that'll look weak and you're still a little bit angry at him for being a prat yesterday," Daniel added.

"Stop being smart!" Katie moaned.

"Sorry, it comes in short bursts. We need to take advantage of it before it goes away!" Matt laughed, flying in dizzyingly small figure eights.

"Well that's no surprise when you do that on a regular basis," Amelia said, pausing to watch him.

Matt stopped suddenly and held his hands out to catch the quaffle. Katie threw it, knowing that he wouldn't miss it, but still hoping he would. He caught it deftly and fluidly threw it to Daniel.

"Keeps me on my toes," Matt remarked, then did it again so that Daniel could throw it to him. The exercise was aimed at making sure that no matter how Matt flew, he wouldn't become too dizzy and motion sick to catch the snitch.

"Good, Matt!" they heard Oliver yell from the end of the field. He was ascending towards them quickly, seemingly all healed.

Daniel leaned closer to Katie and said in a voice that made her feel like his little sister, "Don't be afraid of showing weakness, Katie. Especially not in front of Oliver."

"Feeling better, Genghis?" Justin called, catching the quaffle Matt threw to him.

Oliver nodded and with his usual gruffness began practice.

&&&&&

A few hours later, the sun high in the sky and the team snapping at each other in their hunger, Oliver called practice over. As the team hurried inside to change, looking forward to lunch, Oliver called Katie back. She turned to face him and was surprised to see him holding out a bag of Bertie Bott's Beans as a peace treaty.

"Come on. Let's talk this out, okay?" he said quietly. She nodded and followed him to the goal hoops, where he settled onto the giant ring and rested his feet on his floating broom. Katie followed suit and then waited for him to begin speaking.

"I'm just going to say what comes to mind first, because I don't want to waste time trying to be eloquent. I'm sick of this fighting and I just want to go back to happy-Katie-happy-Oliver-land. Okay?"

"Okay."

"I didn't want to tell you that I was seriously hurt because I didn't want you to worry. I know you're probably still mad at me for being a prat, although how you could still be after throwing all of that stuff at me, I find hard to believe…" he trailed off, looking into the distance and then carefully picking out a red colored bean.

"I'm not still mad at you," Katie whispered.

Oliver glanced at her and twitched a smile. "Good. Because I don't know if I could handle more objects being launched at me."

"I really am sorry I did that, Ollie."

"It's understandable. I was out of line. Here, have a bean," he said, holding the bag out to her.

She picked out a small handful and fingered through them, mentally attempting to guess the flavors.

"I understand why you stomped out of the apartment and why you threw the stuff at me. What I don't understand though is why you went to my mum's house…" he picked out another bean and hesitantly bit into it. Smiling, he popped the rest into his mouth.

"Because I like your mum…and she's one of the few women besides me who, when she bosses you around, you actually listen to."

"I listened to McGonagall!"

"When it suited you," Katie bit into a bean and then winced. "Pepper," she explained.

Oliver chuckled and tried another of the colorful little candies. "Mmm…toffee. No, but honestly. That's why you showed up at my mother's?"

"Well, that and the fact that if I had gone to my own mother, she would have said exactly what she told me last night, and I didn't really want to hear that right then."

"What did your mum say last night?"

Katie blushed. "Oh...nothing," She picked up another bean and popped it into her mouth, hoping it was a nasty flavor so she could divert the conversation. It was apple. "Dammit," she muttered and tried again…chocolate cake.

"I know what you're doing," Oliver said.

"I'm just trying to finish these beans."

"You're trying to avoid answering me. What did your mum say, Katie?" He leaned over and tried to catch her eyes. She squeezed them shut and put another bean in her mouth.

_Third time's the charm!_ She thought ruefully as she gagged on the charcoal tasting bean. Oliver chuckled at the expression on her face and Katie opened her eyes to glare at him. "It's not funny!"

"Your mum said you loved me, didn't she?" Oliver asked tentatively.

"No," Katie said, rather like a child.

"Because I meant what I said last night, Katie. I do love you. Even though you drive me completely insane when you disappear for hours and hours and miss practice and leave your stuff all over my bathroom – including your underwear – I still can't live without you. I know this sounds really cheesy, and you hate cheesy things…well, except for chips." Katie smiled. "But I need to be cheesy right now. I love you, Katherine Bell. I don't know why I just realized this last night, but I'm sorry I was a jerk and a prat and I'm sorry I was gruff this morning. It hurt to breath, let alone speak."

"What was wrong?"

"Broken rib. I still have the bruise though, but the swelling's gone down, and the bone's all healed."

"That's good," Katie said quietly and shifted more towards Oliver. He took this as a minor victory but didn't push it. "I'm really sorry," she said again.

"It's fine. Gives me a good story to tell my grandchildren."

Katie smiled. "Can I tell you something?" she asked.

"Yeah," Oliver said nodding.

"You're the only man in the history of the world who would get cranky that someone had cleaned the house for them. You're also the only man in the world that would be angry at touching bras and underwear belonging to Katie Bell,one of _Witch Weekly's Dangerous Damsels." _

"I know. Although, to be fair, you're probably one of the only women in the world who would hurl things at Oliver Wood after he traipsed around in a thunder storm for her."

"We're a pair aren't we?" she asked, nudging his shoulder with her own.

"Yea."

"Hey, Oliver…" Katie said a few moments later.

"Mmm?"

_Don't be afraid of being weak,_ Katie reminded herself. She braced herself for saying 'I love you too', but when her mouth opened to speak, it asked "Can I move back in?" instead. She mentally cursed herself for being a chicken and ate another bean in frustration.

"I wasn't under the impression that you were actually planning on moving out," Oliver said, glancing at her out of the corner of his eyes.

"Oh…well then uhm…"

Oliver chuckled and placed his arm around her shoulders, hoping she wouldn't pull away. "We've been through a lot, huh, Kates?"

She nodded and said "Yea…we have... Do you remember the first practice we ever had together?"

"And you knocked me out, yea, of course I remember that…or, hearing about it anyway. I didn't expect someone of your size to throw that hard…"

Katie blushed as she laughed quietly. "Sorry about that."

"Oh, that's okay. The time I'm still angry about is when Fred and George taught you how to use the beaters bat, and then you all decided to use that in a game!"

Katie laughed outright and leaned against Oliver. "We won, though!" she said.

"Yea, but you also all gave me a panic attack when George tossed you his bat."

"Ravenclaw was so confused," she remembered.

"As was Hooch. She couldn't decide whether or not it was a penalty!"

The two teammates settled into silence, remembering the first game Katie had ever played in at Hogwarts. Angelina had collided with one of the Ravenclaw chasers fairly early in the game, and with her left eye was swollen shut, she was only capable of short interval passes, not trusting her depth perception to hold up enough to try and score. Katie's talent for throwing was discovered almost as early in the game, and to combat that, the Ravenclaw beaters had been instructed to aim the bludgers at her whenever she got the quaffle. The team was struggling to hold onto their lead with two chasers practically out of the game.

The fact that Alicia was an amazing tactician on the field, and that she could make split second plans was something that most of the other Hogwarts teams didn't realize until the next year, and so, using that to her advantage, while flying down the field, she had called a flurry of orders that came out sounding like "I have a craving for scrambled eggs right now!" but really meant "George, give Katie your bat and I'm going to pass to you and you're going to score!" And that's what they did. Angelina passed the quaffle to Katie, who held onto the quaffle until she heard the whack of a Ravenclaw beater's bat, and then drop passed to Alicia, caught the bat George tossed her and deflected the bludger right back at the Ravenclaw beater. The beater froze in surprise, and the small dark ball collided with his stomach just as Alicia handed off to George who tossed the quaffle lightly through the goal. Madame Hooch had called a time out to deliberate with the teachers about whether or not that play was a penalty, and Oliver had yelled so loudly that he lost his voice.

"That was such a fun season," Katie reminisced, breaking the silence a few moments later and bringing the long time teammates back to the present.

"For you guys. All of you girls' hair-brained schemes almost made me die of hyperventilating."

"They were only hair-brained from your vantage point. From mid-field they were amazing feats of brilliance."

"Whatever. I'm just happy that the next season you guys finally toned it down a little."

Katie pulled away and looked at him, confused. "We didn't ever tone it down…you just stopped yelling at us so much…"

Oliver shrugged, pulling her back to rest against him again. "Oh. Maybe I just got used to it."

"Well, I'm glad you did." She ate another of Bertie Bott's Beans and the grinned. "I like this," she announced.

"What? Eating Bertie Bott's two hundred feet in the air?" Oliver asked.

"No! Being here with you... Remembering things..." She trailed off and then something in her clicked. She realized how she could tell Oliver that she loved him without actually telling him. She just hoped that he would get the picture. "Do you want to know what my favorite game ever was?"

"Hide and seek?" Oliver guessed.

Katie shook her head. "No, I mean, my favorite Quidditch game!"

"Oh! Sure."

Katie straightened up and smiled. "The final game I played at Hogwarts," she announced.

Oliver raised an eyebrow. "Why?" he asked.

"Because you came back to watch," she said, hoping he would get the message.

"And…?" he asked, and something in her crumpled.

_Trust men not to get subtle signals!_ She thought to herself, but said aloud: "It was my favorite game I played there because you didn't have to be there – you weren't supposed to be there – but you begged Dumbledore to come and see me play. I liked it because you were there supporting me when you didn't have to be and then afterwards you gave me a hug, critiqued me and stayed for the afterparty…where you uhm…didn't dance with any other girls besides me…" she finished lamely, and stared at him, pleading internally with him to get what she was trying to say.

Oliver stared back blankly at her for a moment, with a confused look on his face. "Still don't understand why it was your favorite," he said.

Katie scrunched up her face in frustration and then almost fell off the Quidditch goal hoop when she felt his lips against hers. His arm around her shoulders held her steady though, and when he pulled away she blinked in surprise.

"You played like crap and Gryffindor lost, but if you're trying to tell me you love me too, I'm getting your hints" he whispered after a moment.

Katie grinned and leaned against her keeper. "You're a butthead," she said finally.

Oliver smirked and asked, "Well, yes, but isn't that why you love me?"

"I don't know. Let's try that kissing thing again, and then maybe I'll tell you," Katie said.

Oliver kissed her again, this time holding her close for longer and only pulling away to breathe. As they grinned at each other, they suddenly realized there was cheering coming from the ground. They looked down and saw the team whistling and cat calling.

"Oi! Lovebirds!" Leo called up. "You couldn't have done this last week?"

Oliver leaned over to get a better look at his beater and shouted back, "What are you doing here?"

"Ignore him!" Justin responded loudly. "He's just angry because he's lost some money!"

"How big was the pot?" Katie asked, ignoring Oliver's indignant, 'What's he talking about?' to her.

"About seventy galleons!" Justin yelled.

Katie straightened and turned to Oliver. "They were betting on when we'd get together," she explained quietly.

"Oh," Oliver said to her, and then added so that the team could hear, "Well, who won then?"

"Katie's mum!" Amelia shouted up.

Oliver turned to face Katie, "Who else was in on this?" he asked.

She opened her mouth to respond, but was side tracked by Daniels shout of "By the way, did you guys want to come to the Donkey with us?"

"Ooh! Yea! Hold on, we'll be right down!" Katie yelled excitedly. She tucked her feet underneath her broom and pulled it closer to her.

Oliver followed suit but looked frustrated. "What's wrong?" Katie asked him.

"I wanted more kisses," he pouted, getting onto his broom. Katie laughed and assured him that that night he would be receiving all the kisses he could want. Grinning bigger than he had in a long time, the burly keeper followed his feisty chaser girlfriend down towards the rest of the team.

_Fin_

**There you have it...12 chapters later, Katie and Oliver are a happy couple. I'll try to write an epilogue before school/theater/marching band all pick up again -- hopefully i'll have more time to sleep this year, but somehow i severely doubt it. Anyway, if I don't, I'll see all of next summer for another flirty round of romantic chapters in another story. (Probs Oliver and Katie again, but maybe not) I hope you enjoyed this. **

**_Read and Review, please! _**

(Title from Rent's "I Should Tell You")


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